Omajinai
by Marie9
Summary: Amidst a string of strange, violent magician vanishings with no leads or clues, Kaitou Kid reluctantly enlists the aid of the very tantei normally chasing him to figure out what's going on- and why there's an apparent connection to his father's death.
1. Chapter 1

**HATE YOU PLOTBUNNIES!** This is what I get for thinking 'Why did Toichi steal?' and letting _another_ doggone plot bunny sneak up on me... *Story now also entirely reedited for better sentence structure, longcat sentences were long*

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"But you don't _understand_," cried Korinoko Kagome, a twenty year old raven-haired, brown-eyed female stage assistant as her tears flowed freely. She was standing on the left side of the stage as the onlookers in the crowd clapped and cheered wildly in the packed college events stadium, her pleading protests drowned out by the sheer volume of the masses' whistling and general decibel level. Her tear-streaked and grief-filled face went unnoticed by everyone due to their wholehearted, intense focus on the massive red velvet curtain that was currently sitting at center stage, the crowd patiently waiting for the star of the show to make his daring, dramatic escape and reappear in front of them. The magician currently performing onstage, real name of Korinoko Morinou but far better known by his stage name of the Great Vizar, had as of yet failed to reappear from his attempt to extricate himself from the large upright glass-walled prison tank he had inserted himself into a few minutes ago. The crowd was expecting him back at any moment with a triumphant grin on his face, holding the handcuffs his assistant had used to bind him in his right hand and uttering his trademark cry of 'Another escape for the books!'

The young woman continued her protests to no avail, raising her voice and trying desperately to be heard over the crowd after she had rushed out from behind the curtain in a panic. "Stop clapping!" she yelled as loudly as she could muster given her current emotional state, her voice cracking with sorrow and panic in the process. "Please, listen to me and quit! Dad's _actually vanished! For real! _This isn't an act! This isn't ANY of his magic tricks! He's just GONE!" she managed to wail before she found herself unable to so much as whisper anymore, her voice roughened beyond the point of usability thanks to both her efforts to be heard above the din and her throat feeling like a vise grip was on it from the crying she'd been (and still was) doing.

She had made the horrific discovery after her father began the final routine of his act, his patented escape trick involving his custom-made cage that they referred to simply as 'The Box' during their frequent practice sessions. After allowing a few seconds for everyone's focus to shift onto the huge curtain, she surreptitiously slipped behind it from the side- just as she always always did in order to ensure that her father made a safe, quick escape from his self-devised cage, and to assist him in getting out if he needed it. To her initial puzzlement and confusion, she had found that her father was just plain _gone _and this was very curious because this was way too fast for him to have broken out; they'd timed his best, quickest escape at three and a half minutes and that time had only come after years of perfecting the routine_. _

That puzzlement and confusion had all too quickly turned into equal parts of stomach-churning horror and fear for her father's safety as she looked around more and realized that not only was her father nowhere to be seen backstage, but the cage he'd been occupying just a few moments ago now had a small, faintly tinny-smelling and scary-looking pool of thick red stuff in the bottom of it that had caused her eyes to shoot open as she'd realized that it looked a lot like _blood_. A hasty, panicked search backstage by her had revealed nothing more than a few more small drops of that substance leading directly to the rear stage exit, which was slowly swinging back and forth in the balmy summer night breeze currently.

It took a good two or three minutes before the first onlooker had taken their eyes off the curtain and noticed the assistant's panic and fear, getting out of their seat walking over to inquire about what was wrong as around them the clapping slowly faded out and the cheering turned into concerned-sounding murmurs and whispers because the Great Vizar was taking too long to reappear.

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"_Damn_ it," hissed Megure-keibu under his breath in an uncharacteristic bout of total anger, an exasperated huff accompanying the curse as he moodily surveyed his newest crime scene at the arena a few hours after the vanishing of the magician- the newest and most current one, that was. He turned his back to his subordinates that had gathered for a crime scene meeting before continuing his tirade, an angry glare directed at the bloodstain on the bottom of the glass tank that hadn't fully finished congealing yet. "Not _another_ one of these stupid, impossible magician disappearances! We never find a single thing but traces of their blood leading out some door or side window somewhere! I have absolutely _had it_ with these things and being called to them! What the hell is going _on_ here?"

The rest of the currently gathered police force looked at each other nervously out of the corners of eyes, none wanting to openly admit that the string of inexplicable vanishings was stumping them as much as their keibu. They also all shared in his sense of frustration and feeling like they had to be missing _something _in this string of odd disappearances. There hadn't been a break yet, that lucky event, happy coincidence or piece of critical evidence that would finally set them down the trail towards the truth of this strange series of kidnappings. Or at least, they were _assumed_ to be kidnappings and currently being worked as such by the force; at the present time they still couldn't quite even tell what precisely was occurring beyond magicians in the greater Tokyo prefecture vanishing like ghosts in the midst of their final-act performances with no warning, rhyme or reason behind the dissappearances.

"This one is what, the third or fourth of these weird cases in as many weeks?" inquired Detective Takagi tenuously to the room in general after a few moments of tension-filled silence while his eyes roamed the faces of the squad, getting a weary nod of agreement from his partner Detective Sato after he'd asked the question.

"This makes the fourth, actually," she replied softly in a voice tinged with defeat and frustration. "All under similar- OK, make that extremely identical to _absolutely_ identical- circumstances. The magician suddenly vanishing during the performing of their finale and almost no evidence left behind at all that they were even taken, just the little bits of blood here and there. Nothing else at all left behind at the scenes, no notes, no weapons, no anything, almost as if a ghost stole in and made them vanish." She sipped her coffee before tacking on "If they're being kidnapped, that is."

"Why can't some other precinct besides us catch one of these stupid things for once?" grumbled Inspector Chiba, who was highly irritated at being called in on his day off and also currently only running on half of his mental cylinders due to not being early enough to snag some coffee from the pot Satou had made at headquarters and brought with her.

The group of detectives had descended on the pot like hummingbirds to a nectar-rich flower once they'd realized what it had contained and drained it very quickly. "We're being made a laughing stock out of thanks to these stupid magician vanishings. There are magicians in more places than just Tokyo and the surrounding areas, why aren't any of _them_ getting kidnapped or vanished or whatever-ed?" he continued as he waved his hand around in frustration.

"Well, remember, we don't know that they're being kidnapped for sure," pointed out Megure irritably. "If we really face facts, we don't have a clue _what_ the hell is going on here and it's getting very old very fast. No leads, no clues, not a damn thing but magicians pulling _actual _vanishing acts."

"There's still been no contact from any of the first three magicians that vanished, by the way, keibu," stated Takagi as he flipped open a notepad. "I checked into the files earlier like you asked. No ransom demands or anything from anyone, either. It's like they've all just vanished off the face of the earth..."

"N-no contact?" cried Kagome as she approached the detectives she'd been spending the last few hours giving statements to, having heard the last statement and feeling dread come over her quickly. "What do you mean? None of them have been seen or heard from since they vanished at all? The other magicians who've gone missing that you told me a bit about?"

"Unfortunately, I meant exactly what I just said," replied Takagi softly but firmly to the girl, trying to put his sympathy training to good use but also not wanting to give the magician's daughter any false hope about them solving a case (well, cases now) that had the police completely stumped and with zero leads at the present time. "These other magicians that have disappeared haven't made any contact since the performance that they vanished, and there's been no contact from kidnappers or anything along those lines either, someone demanding a ransom or something like that."

At the glare that he received from the rest of the detective team for imparting this information, Takagi shrugged and asked "What? It's not like the public doesn't already know all that. The media has been sticking to us like glue on this series of cases, unfortunately."

"This...this sounds horrible for him...I'd heard about the others, but...Dad..." she finally managed to stammer out before a uniformed officer gently began escorting her back to the area where they were still taking and finalizing her statement.

"Megure-keibu, if I may offer a suggestion that Takagi and I have been mulling over since the second case?" asked Satou respectfully of her superior a few moments after the girl's departure. "We're really getting nowhere in a hurry with these dissappearances, and the families have pooled together a reward fund for information because of that. Why don't we call in that tantei friend of yours who sometimes consults for us, Sleeping Kogoro, and see what he thinks? He seems to have a knack for solving his cases, no matter how strange or lacking evidence they are initially, and I'm sure we can convince the families to pay him for his time out of that fund."

"Mmm." Megure narrowed his eyes and gazed dead ahead for a few moments at no one and nothing in particular, engaging in his familiar habit of holding an internal consultation with himself. "That guy has death follow him like a shadow, but we really are getting desperate and we need some leads quick," he replied after a few minutes while turning to Satou and nodding, apparently having made his mind up. "Go ahead and have someone call him first thing in the morning- but offer to pay the taxi fare or the lazy bum won't bother coming to the station."


	2. Chapter 2

I am ready to stab this new layout with a spork! So annoying.

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"Did you hear about it on the news this morning yet, Ran? They had another one of those weird magician things happen last night at a college." Sonoko offered this information with a half-serious flip of her hand accompanying the statement as the pair walked through the mall, their third, rather unwilling companion trying to keep up with the much longer-legged girls while wearing a frustrated look on his small, bespectacled face.

"Weird magician thi-? Oh, you mean those magicians that keep vanishing left and right lately," Ran commented with a knowing nod as they continued their trek through the rather packed mall. "That's why Dad is gone today. They called him in really early to have him look things over and help investigate the latest one, I guess. Megure-keibu decided to call him in after the families agreed to pay for Dad's time from their pooled reward fund- he actually took off this morning before Conan and I even woke up. Which is really weird for him as you know; him being up and gone before noon nearly made me panic for a minute till I found his note."

_Yeah, he took off- and he didn't take Ran or me with him, which means that they'll most likely go off in some wrong direction because of a totally wrong deduction on his part somewhere along the way. Thanks _so_ much for not bothering to wake us up to go with you when you got that call, ojisan, _Shinichi thought darkly as he walked a few feet behind the pair of girls, deeply irritated both at being left behind and the fact that he was so helpless to do anything about being left. There were times that he completely, utterly and categorically hated being in this weak, shrunken body, and this was definitely one of those times. _Of course, as far as he's concerned, he's the one solving the cases, so he probably didn't even think about taking us along. His head has gotten way too big thanks to me creating the reputation of 'Sleeping Kogoro'... _

The worst part of the whole thing was that Shinichi had actually really wanted to dig into this particular case due to the exceedingly bizarre circumstances surrounding the magicians disappearing- especially the strange lack of evidence left behind at the scenes- and thanks to that idiot running off without him Shinichi had missed out on a perfect, golden opportunity to poke around at one of the scenes of the unusual crimes. _If there was another one last night after I went to bed, that makes four of them now in total since these strange vanishings began about a month ago. Four different magicians in four different parts of four different districts of Tokyo just completely disappearing without a trace in the midst of their finales..._

Ran turned and looked at her friend, deciding to break the silence that had settled over the trio as they walked. "So another magician went missing? Any clues this time around?" Ran took her cell phone out of her purse and shook it back and forth while she sighed. "I can't ask Dad because he won't pick up for some reason. I suppose that the police don't want him talking to _anyone _while he's there because they're afraid of information being leaked, even inadvertently."

"Probably. And yep, the Great Vizar suddenly vanished during his finale last night, just like the first three did" replied Sonoko with all the chipper air of an excited fan discussing their favorite band instead of someone talking about serious news. "And nope, the lack of clues at the scene is also the same the others- a few drops of blood here and there, an open back door but that's it. And of course, the police are being closemouthed except for the fact that minute traces of blood were found. Even that only got initially out because someone in the media snuck in and reported it on the third case, if I recall correctly..."

That was the other very strange aspect of the cases that chilled Shinichi- how oddly and completely silent the police were being with this particular set of investigations. Even Takagi-keiji and Satou-keiji, who normally shared (most) anything that they knew when they were asked by him after he'd carefully formulated a childlike inquiry beforehand, just looked at him with sad, puzzled expressions and shrugged their shoulders before walking off in frustrated huffs after not answering whatever he'd asked. _Are they busy covering something up that they don't want the public to know? Like maybe finding the magicians dead later, something horrible along those lines and they don't want it to get out until they have some solid leads to the killer? Or could it be that they're really, truly almost as clueless about what's going on with these cases as the public is? _Shinichi tried to think back to what little he had been able to learn about the cases through various television reports and newspaper articles.

The first performer, Kobiyashi Akashi, stage name of The Amazing Akashi, had vanished quite literally in the midst of getting ready to perform his crowd-pleasing 'Walking on Air' show finale nearly four weeks ago. His normal routine during the set was to vanish from the center of the stage in a puff of smoke, then reappear high above the crowd a few moments later and walk in midair from one end of whatever venue he was performing on to the other to wild, cheering applause.

That night, the magician had never reappeared above the crowd to finish the act after vanishing in that large blue puff of smoke, and it had taken nearly ten full minutes before someone besides his son-in-law/assistant realized that something was seriously wrong. The police had been called in, and an eventually fruitless search of the arena and general area had been conducted with no results. Even that assistant, so completely familiar with the routine, had thought for the first five or six minutes that Akashi was merely having a bit of difficulty with the intricate invisible rigging involved and was trying to straighten it out and hook it up correctly before dramatically reappearing.

Almost exactly a week after Kobiyashi Akashi vanished without explanation Uchihara Kojiro, also known onstage simply as Arenai, performed his own permanent disappearing act while in the middle of his 'Teleportation' showstopper. Kojiro began the final performance by levitating himself high above the audience, then vanishing in a flash of light and reappearing in several different places within the arena over the next minute or so after disappearing in similar flashes, random places that sometimes even included empty seats in the crowd, much to the delight and amazement of the spectators.

What had differed that night from the norm was that directly in the middle of the act while the crowd was going nuts, a strange, secondary flash of light that his fiancée/assistant didn't recognize as part of the act suddenly showed up and began blazing brightly as Kojiro went to move himself again. She had just tried to quietly inquire via a well-hidden microphone to the lighting booth about what was going on when that same errant light flashed brilliantly a few seconds ahead of schedule, burning so brightly that it temporarily blinded everyone in the arena- who had, of course, been focusing intently on the spot due to Kojiro's being suspended there. When the light finally faded, Kojiro's black silk cape fell from the balcony where he had last been seen along with his signature black handkerchief. The man himself, however, was gone, and it took his fiancée fully eight frantic, tear-filled minutes to convince everyone that this was NOT part of his finale.

The third magician to inexplicably vanish during his finale was Musashi Shigeru, or Musashi the Magnificent as he liked to be called when working. He had been in the middle of what he liked to call his 'Reversal of Fortune' finale wherein he called a volunteer from the audience onto the stage and, in a twist on the usual 'stick volunteer in box, poke said box with swords, have volunteer emerge unscathed,' Shigeru himself entered the box and had the volunteer stick the swords in. His chosen volunteer was a small boy of no more than nine who jumped up joyfully and listened carefully to the man's instructions before Musashi entered the box with a wink and grin to his audience, saying he would 'be right back when I'm done having some swords run through me.'

"Alright, Shota, go ahead and start" were the last muffled words that were spoken from within the now-sealed box before the young boy, Shota, picked up the swords and began sticking them into the box one after the other as the crowd gasped and writhed in their seats. After he had stuck the last of the swords in like Shigeru had instructed him to do, Shota begun to be absolutely terrified as the box never moved and the magician never reemerged. After nine minutes of increasing concern and bewilderment, someone from the audience finally went to open the box to discover that it was completely, totally empty except for a few drops of blood in its bottom.

_That blood...and the light smatterings here and there at the other three scenes...they're the only indicator that anything untoward has even possibly happened. But no scene had a particularly large amount of blood, at least not the three that they've fully reported on so far. I wonder if this morning's is any different..._Shinichi's well-honed tantei instincts told him that someone (or more likely, people) somewhere were kidnapping the magicians. And not only that, whoever was doing it was spending plenty of time to plan out and execute a highly visible kidnapping and to time it at a moment when the magicians were vulnerable as well. But for what purpose were they being kidnapped, and why was the perpetrator or perpetrators going to such lengths to kidnap them in the middle of their shows? How long would they be held? And where were they being held? And-

"Earth to Conan! We're at the clothing store! Do you want to help pick out some outfits or just stand there all day looking so serious?" inquired Ran as she waved her hand in front of Shinichi's face, causing him to blink twice and snap out of his extended musing. _Crap, that's what I get for thinking too hard about this case... _"Sorry, Ran-neechan," he finally managed to stammer out as he followed the pair in. "I was just thinking about whether or not I got all my homework done from school this week."

"Ugh, you're way too young to be that serious about your grades, Conan," teased Sonoko as she knelt down to pinch his cheek. "Clothes are way more-"

"That's enough, Sonoko," announced Ran as she shook her head with a laugh. "Don't set such an impressionable kid down the wrong path. Now, we need to go find that clothing section."

_Trust me, Ran, you don't need to worry about me listening to her, _thought Shinichi dryly as he let Ran steer him towards the child's clothing section of the store that they were in. As they were nearly to the section Ran's phone rang.

"Hello? Oh, hi Dad...What's going on?" Ran listened to the other end of the phone for a few moments while Kogoro talked. "Well, I suppose Conan and I can hail a cab and come there, but we were just going to do some-" Confusion crossed her features. "You managed to LOSE your rental car and you have no cash on you to take a cab of your own? Ugh. Why am I not surprised that you have no cash on you?" With a dejected sigh, she hung up the phone and turned to Shinichi and Sonoko. "Have to go bail Dad out I'm afraid, we need to go pick him up with a cab. Sonoko, do you want to come?"

"Of course I do! Sonoko the Deduction Queen will get to the bottom of these mysterious magician kidnappings!" she cried as they exited the mall and went to grab a cab to the crime scene.


	3. Chapter 3

Reviews make me smile.

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"I'm surprised that you're in such a good mood this morning" muttered Hakuba Saguru so quietly that it was almost to himself as he shed his Inverness coat, took his usual seat in the classroom and opened the morning newspaper. He turned directly to the crime section and began to peruse the latest wrongdoings while sipping on the Earl Grey tea that he always prepared at home, bringing it in a Thermos and pouring into a porcelain cup that he also brought from home because those lousy cheap Styrofoam cups simply ruined the flavor of good tea (or any beverage, really) in his opinion.

Of course, he had meant the hushed comment for a certain very annoying magician/prankster that shared Saguru's classroom who was also currently in the room doing who knew what- doubtless nothing good. Kuroba Kaito immediately picked up on the remark and temporarily ceased his work on an elaborate trap eventually meant for their sensei that involved the door, a rope, a timer, some rigging and a rather large water balloon aimed directly over the sensei's desk. Kaito turned towards the blonde meitantei's desk and asked "Why do you say that?" in a half-serious tone. _What is Hakuba trying to get at? _

"Well, yet another magician went missing during their finale last night," replied Saguru evenly as he folded the crime section in such a way that the other boy could see the large 'FOURTH MAGICIAN PULLS PERMANENT VANISHING ACT DURING HIS FINALE AT A LOCAL COLLEGE' headline splashed across the crime section's front page. "Since you're a magician-" _and also Kaitou Kid, if my suspicions are correct, _Saguru tacked on mentally- "I figured you might be a bit worried about what's going on with them and why they're vanishing like that."

"Why? Yeah, I do magic, but it's not like I perform for a living like those guys do. All the magicians that disappeared were professional stage performers." Kaito shrugged and walked over after this statement, sitting himself down backwards in the seat that Koizumi Akako normally filled so that he could face Saguru while they spoke.

"Mmm, I see," Saguru replied with a slight nod as he folded open another section of the paper since Kaito had picked the crime section up to begin studying it in more detail. "Well if you're not worried, that's good, but I'm sure that whoever Kaitou Kid is must be starting to sweat a bit at this point. I know I would be if I were him." Saguru was very grateful for the paper to hide his face behind at the moment, since he was sure he had most thoroughly raised Kaito's interest level in the situation through his not-so-subtle hint. He also knew that he would have been hard pressed to squash the knowing smirk that was dancing at the edges of his mouth currently. Sure enough, Saguru could hear the sounds of frantic paper rustling beginning on the other side of his own raised Global News section.

"What are you two looking at over here? It interrupted Kaito setting up one of his pranks, it must be really interesting," commented Nakamori Aoko as she approached the pair, mop already in hand and at the ready just in case Kaito greeted her with his standard 'What color are they today?' followed by a skirt flip. In fact, Aoko was _really _wondering what was going on because this was probably one of the only times in her life she'd actually seen Kaito even lift a newspaper up, much less study it with such an intent expression- and Kaito and Saguru weren't even close to fighting, another unusual event. She was a strange mixture of relieved and a little scared when Kaito didn't even acknowledge her approach; he just kept intently studying whatever section of the newspaper he had and never even took his eyes off the page at the sound of her voice.

"Oh, good morning Aoko-san. We were just discussing those magician vanishings that have been happening over the past few weeks," offered Saguru by way of explanation as he folded up the section he'd been reading. "Apparently another one went missing last night, which raises the total to four now." He covered his mouth coughed lightly before opening his Thermos and pouring his second cup of tea. "There's part of me that wonders if they aren't going after Kaitou Kid for whatever reason," he continued while Akako entered the room and leveled a glare at her currently occupied desk, ready to berate Kaito roundly for sitting in her seat before realizing what Saguru had just said.

"Why do you think they're going after Kaitou Kid, Saguru-kun?" Akako inquired after a few moments, being careful not to let _too_ pointed of a look slip in Kaito's direction while she asked the question. _I hope you're paying attention, Kaito-kun..._

"Several things point to that conclusion when you look at them all together at once, really," he replied airily as he lifted his hand up and began ticking them off. "First is that, well, it's _magicians_ who are vanishing- I think that one is fairly self-explanatory. Second is that all of the missing magicians are males with trim builds, and it's generally assumed that Kid is really a guy- even if he _does_ cross-dress on occasion. Third is that all of them have either dark brown or almost black hair and eyes that are some shade of darker blue, which seems to be close to Kid's own hair and eye color, assuming that Kid isn't using hair dye and colored contacts during his heists of course. Fourth is-"

"The tricks!" cried Aoko triumphantly as her eyes widened with realization. "Two of those four magicians used tricks just like Kaitou Kid used- I think one of them would walk on air across the arena for his finale and the other guy would teleport around the audience. Kaitou Kid used both those at one heist or another of his."

"That's it exactly," nodded Saguru. "Precisely what I was going to say. And as for the other two magicians...well, take a look at their stage costumes. Please give me my paper back for a minute, Kuroba." He held his hand out for the paper, tapping the paper eventually when he realized that Kaito wasn't listening to him. "Kuroba!"

"Sorry, here." Kaito sounded far from his usual jubilant, jokester self as he handed the paper over to Saguru with a very serious look on his face. "What were you saying-something about their uniforms?"

"Yes. Look at these uniforms. Seem familiar?" inquired Saguru as he pointed at two of the missing magicians, pointing at the showy green ruffles on The Great Vizar's flashy, suit like costume and large silk top hat and monocle that Musashi the Magnificent enjoyed wearing onstage. _Well at least he actually seems to be taking this seriously..._

"Those look just like Kid's, only different colors" replied Akako who was now very deliberately avoiding looking over at Kaito. _The more that Hakuba lays this theory out, the more plausible it seems...I hope he takes extra care on his next few heists since he always announces them beforehand. If someone really is after Kaitou Kid that will make it that much easier for them._

"Weird that they haven't just tried grabbing him on one of his heists," commented Aoko. "If they really are after Kid, then you'd think that they would just set themselves up at wherever he says his next robbery will be and kidnap him then."

"I can't see that screaming fan club throng of his letting anyone get away with that," chuckled Hakuba as he finished off his second cup of tea. "Can you imagine what would happen if his huge group of fans saw people trying to kidnap him? It would be complete, utter chaos. And some rather bloodied kidnappers who would either be arrested or get away empty-handed."

"Good morning, class," came their sensei's voice as she entered the room, her students quickly rising to greet her while the conversation they'd been having abruptly halted.

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_I really wonder if Hakuba's actually right. What he said in class makes a lot of sense. But if it is true, who's after me and why? I mean, I always return what I take, so I doubt that it's the owner of one of the jewels that I've taken hiring some mercenaries for revenge or something like that. And Snake and his cronies haven't shown themselves at several of my heists now...well, maybe it is them? Maybe they've gotten tired of waiting around and me beating them to various jewels? But you would think that they would just come to our house and get it over with...they obviously knew who Dad really was after all._

Kaito had been mulling over their conversation about the missing magicians in class for three days now practically every time that he had a few spare moments, pondering what he could do to help his fellow magicians without exposing himself or his mom to danger and also ensuring that the true identity of the rebirthed Kid stayed a secret. _I wonder if I should leave another note at the next heist letting them, whoever that is, know that none of those kidnapped magicians they've taken is me...maybe they'd let them go then. I really hope they're all still alive, at least..._Kaito didn't think that his conscience could handle it if they ever found any of the magicians dead if it really _did_ turn out that they were being kidnapped, then killed simply because they weren't him.

He already had a target for his next caper, and had in fact already sent his caricatured note to the police and to the owner of the gem scheduling the heist for tonight. His target was one that had piqued his interest almost immediately once he'd read up on it, a large diamond-cut forest green emerald named 'Christmastide' due to its supposed strange propensity for having wide red streaks appear within that deep green when a powerful ultraviolet light was held under it. He and Jii had already spent a whole lot of time casing out the home and secure wing where the jewel resided, and he decided that he was going to go ahead with the heist, even after having three days to change his mind. _Let them show up tonight. Hopefully I can try and get at least one or two of them arrested so they'll cough up the magician's whereabouts to the police._

As Kaito finished approaching his house, he noticed a strange black car parked in his driveway. His eyes narrowed reflexively as he ducked behind a bush and then readjusted his position so he could keep an eye on the vehicle, wondering who on Earth that old antique Porsche belonged to. _Who the heck is that? I've never seen that car before in my life...And Snake's car looked nothing like that the time I managed to catch a glimpse of it. _Kaito's instincts told him that something was most decidedly not right- well, more like his instincts were screaming at him that he was in danger. And they were coming out of his house... _Mom!_

"But Aniki, what about her son who lives with her?" came an unfamiliar bass voice, a voice that instantly sent shivers up Kaito's spine. "Could it be him? Shouldn't we stay and interrogate him, too?" This was followed by a huge, hulking guy dressed from head to toe in black coming into Kaito's rather narrow field of vision.

"Tch. We have to get going before too many people notice the car, we'll worry about him later. I _told _you not to park it right in their damn driveway, idiot" hissed a smoother voice that somehow managed to creep Kaito out even more and set off his internal alarms. _Mom! _W_hat the hell have these bastards done to her? _"And don't talk that loudly. Besides, I think her son Kuroba Kaito will be...a little too busy with other things for him to pull the heist tonight even if he _is_ Kaitou Kid." A lanky man with long, blonde hair and a cigarette dangling from his mouth that apparently owned that second voice who was dressed similarly to the big man now came into view as that second sentence finished.

"But Aniki, he should be nearly home-"

"We have to go _now _thanks to how long this car's been in the public eye. Listen to my directions next time and go park it somewhere that's not so conspicuous like I've told you a hundred times before," snapped the blonde shortly as he got into the driver's seat, the large man got into the passenger's side and the car quickly pulled away.

As soon as the car had completely disappeared around the corner, Kaito waited as long as he could possibly stand it while his stomach danced in his throat before leaping out of his hiding spot and rushing in through their open front door, not giving a damn if anyone else was inside still or to anything else but finding out as quickly as possible what had happened to his mother.

"MOM!"


	4. Chapter 4

Reviews = happycat!

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"This is _so_ weird," muttered Nakamori Ginzo-keibu to himself as he continued to carefully survey the beautifully clear night sky with binoculars. He was looking, watching and rather anxiously waiting for any sign of a familiar white hang glider containing an equally white-clad thief hanging onto the handlebars making his usual dramatic entrance onto the scene of his grandly preannounced crime. Of course, Ginzo wasn't ever quite sure whether he and his task force should be deeply annoyed or highly honored that while Kid sent his advance notices to the people that owned his targeted jewels in fairly plain format, he left the police twisted, strange, ingenious riddles to solve that drove them mad and sometimes took nearly until the day of the heist to solve, if some of their more clever members were unavailable to assist with research. Not that the police assigned to the Kaitou Kid task force would _ever_ have asked the victims for their slightly decoded notes; that was part of the game they played with Kid, part of the challenge. To _not_ solve the riddle would be cheating both themselves and Kaitou Kid.

Nakamori and the others on his special team also knew that yes, they _could_ have shot Kaitou Kid down out of the sky ages and ages ago to catch and arrest him if they had really wanted to -that glider was _terribly_ open and exposed to the onlookers down below after all. However, out of deference not only to the fact that he was unarmed, but also to Kid's total dedication to the practice of nonviolent methods during his impossible heists, the Kid task force had long, long ago agreed firmly among themselves to show Kaitou Kid the same respect by only trying to catch the exceptionally wily and slippery thief using equally humane and pacifistic methods to accomplish the task.

Kaitou Kid was also -Ginzo found himself glancing down at his watch yet again with growing puzzlement- as of five minutes ago by his fairly accurate wristwatch _late_ now to one of his own heists; the master showman -slash- master magician -slash- master thief Kaitou Kid was _never _late to one of his heists. Ever. And the massive crowd behind Ginzo currently knew this fact and was rapidly growing as restless and anxious as the keibu and the other task members felt themselves. The screaming herd was clattering against the fence, shoving against the barrier and calling for Kid in loud raised voices, wondering why he hadn't shown up yet like the Kid task force was beginning to wonder themselves, worried frowns and thoughtful furrows eventually replacing eager grins and curiosity when the glider hadn't appeared in the sky precisely at the time Kid laid down in his schedule like it always did.

What was this strange, ominous feeling that was slowly beginning its feasting on his gut currently? Surely not _worry _about the young thief, most definitely not the veteran, hardened keibu actually _wondering_ if Kid was laying severely injured or dead somewhere, if perhaps a life-threatening injury or even his death en route to the heist was the cause of his strange and highly out of character tardiness. Nope, _none_ of those, not at all. Ginzo steeled himself as he finished the obvious mental lie to himself and did another sweep of the sky; he had a job to do at the moment, personal feelings be damned. Although the main reason for his current job was nowhere in sight and now running a good _ten_ minutes late by Ginzo's watch.

"Hmph. Not like him at all to be tardy and keep his crazed fans waiting, now is it Nakamori-keibu?" commented a well-cultured male voice coming from Ginzo's left with approaching footsteps giving a staccato accompaniment to the statement. It was a young voice too, one that Ginzo had come to know all too well in the time he'd spent chasing the recently unretired Kaitou Kid. (Although in a mental side note to himself, Ginzo _also_ had a rather strong suspicion, a policemen's hunch or perhaps some sort of hunter's instinct developed through spending so long with this particular white-outfitted prey that this was _not _the same Kaitou Kid he'd pursued so long ago.) There was a grudging respect there towards the blonde meitantei, but there was a rivalry there as well; _he_, the head of the Kaitou Kid task force, was going to be the one to catch Kaitou Kid dammit, not the often pompous and egotistical Hakuba Saguru. Although upon further reflection, Ginzo had to admit (even if only to himself) that there were a few heists that they simply would not have even showed up on time to if the teen hadn't been feeling generous with information and practically held the task force's hands through solving some of the stranger, more layered riddles Kid had come up with.

"Yeah, Hakuba. Not like him." Ginzo issued this gruff reply as more of a grunt than a statement, never removing his eyes from the sky as he continued to scan avidly for the still-absent thief.

"You know, Nakamori-keibu, something may have happened to him." This was followed by an affirmative, high-pitched squawk from Watson, who was currently perched on Saguru's shoulder and very worked up.

All of the other task force members turned to the meitantei and gave him the sort of looks that were normally reserved for either a hated public figure or a particularly, virulently odorous piece of cheese. Oh, all of them had already thought the dreaded thought at some point or another after Kaitou Kid had so strangely began running late, but none of them had even _dared _to speak it out loud and none of them had planned to. That Saguru had actually _committed_ this unpardonable sin caused every single member of the force to turn thier backs to the meitantei in an almost childish fit of collective anger (Ginzo most definitely included,) the group collectively, instantly punishing the teen for _daring_ to actually vocalize what was really deep down their single greatest fear.

Yes, Kid was a thief first and foremost- a criminal that they needed to catch and have answer for his larceny in a court of law. Yes, he was strange, operated in a most unusual manner and pulled the most unexpected pranks imaginable at his highly inventive heists (including one memorable pre-heist incident with the force's still very full at the time large portable coffee Thermos, ten electric blue paintballs, a springboard, some rubber bands and a rather large white mouse- they still chuckled about that one to this day, at least the ones that hadn't gotten caught in Kid's bizarre, amazing trap.) But you got the strange sense that you could very safely approach Kaitou Kid unarmed, and he always returned what he took eventually didn't he? Plus he was a criminal that operated completely within the rules- albeit his own rules, but rules nonetheless- in a world where criminals generally played by none at all. They didn't _want_ him hurt, and in their collective minds even _thinking_ of the possibility that the Magician of the Moonlight might actually really be hurt or injured could possibly help make the horrible thought a reality.

"Alright, alright. I get it. But you all really _do_ have to begin looking at the possibility at this point, you know. Those magicians that have been vanishing lately...Did Aoko-san discuss my theory with you at all this afternoon Nakamori-keibu? I really think that-"

"THERE HE IS!"

The present collective KKFC (Kaitou Kid Fan Club, the term that was generally used by the task force for the screaming fans that always showed up to his heists, an inappropriate word sometimes placed in front of that KKFC if an officer was in a surly mood after dealing with one of the KKFC's more rabid specimens) began screaming and clapping wildly as the crisp white hang glider came into view off in the distance, and the task force members collectively, instantly perked up and inserted their ear pieces, radios snapping to life and frequencies quickly synchronized as adrenaline began coursing rapidly through tense veins. They had all learned long, long ago that trying to hold any sort of conversation without the aid of in-ear headpieces at a Kid heist once the thief actually showed up for his evening's pilfer was akin to trying to move the sand out of the Sahara grain by tiny grain- a tortuous ordeal that would only end in failure and frustration.

_What's with that mask on his face? Kid always wears a monocle...but that _is _his glider, no question... _"Alright, let's get moving! Into the room where Christmastide is, NOW!"

Their thief had finally showed up, and all was right with the world once more.

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"Mom, I'm going to get help, alright? And I'm not going to be staying at the house for a while, because I have a feeling that those guys in black were after me." Kaito gave her as pointed a look as he could muster while she was laying there with an IV in her arm. "Weren't they?" he added softly.

Kaito sat by his mother's beside in the hospital, very unhappy that she was in said facility at all but deeply grateful that they very worst she had had to endure was a small hairline fracture to her left arm and some overall bruising. Those black-jacketed bastards had roughed her up all right, but they hadn't killed her. When he wasn't profusely thanking whatever higher power had looked after his mother in those moments, Kaito was wondering about why they hadn't killed her. She looked over at him and smiled.

"Now, dear. Listen to me, this isn't so bad. And don't think that I didn't know exactly what I was possibly letting myself in for when I married Toichi; he told me who he was before we officially got engaged. I'll be fine." A pause while indecision wavered in his mother's eyes. "I've never told you this before because I didn't think that you should know, but a similar pair of men came to me after your father died in that horrible accident at his show. They were far more brutal than those two this afternoon, believe me." As Akita noticed the shock in her son's eyes she added firmly "Do you remember that week fairly close to your father's death when you stayed with Jii-san? That was because I was in the hospital."

"But Mom-"

"Yes, they were after you. They wanted to know what you knew about something called Pandora...I heard your father always mention Pandora, too, towards the end of everything. Whatever it is, that's what they were after. But they also seemed very specific about wanting to know whether you had picked up your father's mantle of Kaitou Kid. Of course I never said anything, which was where they got a bit rough, and then suddenly the tall blonde one looked out our front window at the driveway and started yelling at the bulky one...something about where he'd parked the car or something like that. Then they glared at me and left me tied up just like you found me." She yawned and settled back into the bed. Kaito decided to leave; not only was his mom ready for some much needed sleep, but visitor's hours were ending anyway. _Now it's time to ask the one favor I absolutely dread having to ask..._

He slowly, reluctantly pulled out his cell phone and called the cell belonging to a certain very annoying half-Brit whose ingrained British inclination towards hospitality he was just going to have to lean on. As much as it irked and irritated the thief, the thought of taking a temporary guest room at his rival's house was the biggest barb of all, but he knew for a fact that Hakuba's father was out of town for at least the next two weeks at a bigwig police gathering. The guy also lived in a freaking _huge _house, one that had taken exactly twenty-seven rolls of toilet paper and three different lengths of stepladder to fully encase (this was something that he prayed Hakuba would conveniently forget when he begged this favor of him.)

"Hello, this is Hakuba Saguru," replied the other boy as he picked up, tone full of sleepiness and surprise. "Why are you calling me at this hour, Kuroba? Do you even _realize-_"

_That you just spent the last three hours chasing Jii-chan around fruitlessly and are probably dead tired right now? Yep, but it was necessary. _"Sorry. I wouldn't be calling unless it was important." He coughed and swallowed, a physical gesture that he tried to use to swallow his disgust and pride as well. "Mom's in the hospital, and I don't want to stay at our house for the time being." _I don't want those guys coming back for me, at least not until I'm ready and armed to face them on my own terms...and I don't want to stay at Jii's, there's a chance they might show up at his place because Jii-chan was connected to Dad. Hiding at Hakuba's will work, if he'll actually let me stay. Plus I may be able to steer him towards helping me find those missing magicians... _"Can I crash in one of your guest bedrooms, at least for a few days? You know I wouldn't be asking unless I really needed it."

_What have you gotten yourself into, Kuroba? This sounds very bad...Your mother's in the hospital and you don't want to stay at your own home? Is this perhaps connected to the missing magicians? _"I know that you wouldn't be asking me unless you really needed this favor, idiot. It _is _me after all, and we both know what a deep fondness you possess for me." Saguru finished dryly before he let out a sigh full of inconvenience that he reluctantly admitted to himself was purely for show. "I suppose you can, Kuroba, but there are a few ground rules we're laying out for this beforehand." After Watson finished emitting a squawk almost right in his ear, Saguru shut his eyes and then opened them again as he began. "The first rule of you staying under our roof, Kuroba, is that if there is so much as a single sheet of toilet paper carried outside of the restroom by you you're _done_..."


	5. Chapter 5

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"Um...Why are you wearing a baseball cap today, Saguru-kun?"

Aoko asked this in a sightly amazed tone after she and Akako had entered their classroom a few minutes before the start of class only to encounter the sight of Hakuba Saguru sitting at his desk and drinking his ritually prepared morning tea. Now this in and of itself was nothing out of the ordinary of course, but Saguru was _also _currently donning a deep blue, brand new-looking baseball cap that matched his three-piece suit as well as a facial expression that resided in some strange middle ground between severe annoyance and mild bemusement. His reply to Aoko's query consisted of giving her a somewhat dejected look followed by rather pointedly staring out the window closest to his desk and acting like he hadn't heard the question while he continued to drink his tea.

"Could you, uh, _please _not ask him about that particular subject, Aoko? Thanks."

Here was yet another strange event that made both girls turn to each other and raise their eyebrows in perfect unison before they walked to their respective desks and unloaded their schoolbags for the day's learning. Kuroba Kaito, the ultimate magician-slash-clown, the unrepentant, ebullient prankster and jester king of the class was currently squirming in his seat uncomfortably. He was also not only wearing a sheepish expression but actually appeared to be a little afraid as well, eying Saguru nervously out of the corner of his eye every once in a while in between halfhearted attempts at working on some homework that was due later in the day.

"Alright, what's going _on _here this morning?" Akako then quickly turned to Kaito, placed her hands on her hips and gave him an accusatory look. "Don't tell me that you covered his house with to-"

"No, it wasn't that again, Akako-san. Not _this _particular time at least." Saguru sighed lightly before he turned away from the window and faced the pair of girls. "All I'm going to say on the matter of my wearing a cap today, and probably for the next _several_ days," he began evenly, "is that Kuroba is quite possibly the only person on the face of this entire planet that sleep_pranks _instead of sleep_walks_. And a gallon of orange dye was involved. Let's leave it at that, please." He then reached up to itch his head where his hair was pressing against his scalp under said cap, unintentionally revealing a medium-sized shock of neon orange hair that shook itself loose in the process. Saguru quickly re-tucked the errant neon-colored hair under his cap while letting out a mild oath under his breath so quietly that neither girl actually heard what it was.

"Wait, wait, he was at _your _house last night? So that's where he was when I couldn't get a hold of him at his house to check on how his mom was do-" Aoko blinked twice and paused in mid-sentence, her brain having just processed Saguru's current, rather unusual hair color. "Is your hair..._bright_ _orange_?" She had to try very hard to stifle the explosive bout of laughter that was threatening to surface at the mental image of what Saguru's hair must look like under the cap and Aoko barely succeeded in the task, mostly thanks to a rather uncharacteristically serious and pleading look from Kaito that he shot her over his textbook when she looked his way.

"Sleep..._pranks_?" Akako inquired in complete disbelief once Aoko had calmed herself down.

"I _said _let's leave it at that; I really don't feel like discussing it right now. Besides, class is starting very soon and I wouldn't have time to explain anyhow." He nodded slightly at someone over their shoulder in order to indicate their sensei, who had just entered the room.

_Why did Mom never tell me that I set up pranks in my sleep? Ugh. __I'm just glad that Hakuba seemed to realize that I really _was _telling the truth when that bucket of dye dropped on him and I told him I had no clue how it got up above his door. Gah, no time to think about that now! _Kaito was also trying to calm himself down while his mind churned furiously with thoughts of missing magicians, pairs of black-outfitted men and a currently hospitalized parent. The homework that he was hurriedly trying to finish was helping him to refocus somewhat, along with the fact that Hakuba _also_ didn't seem to be tossing him out as retaliation for making the other boy roughly resemble a tall, golden-eyed traffic cone- at least for the next week or so until the dye Kaito had somehow managed to procure_ in his sleep_ completely finished washing out.

_My next step while I'm staying at his house is trying to figure out how I'm going to convince him to investigate what's going on with those magician disappearances. I also have to try a__nd do that while making him think that it's his own idea to boot; since I know he strongly suspects that I'm Kaitou Kid, it would probably be a really bad idea to just flat out ask him for help. Maybe I can begin with a subtle hint or two, like leaving his paper open to the cases or something along those lines._

"Kuroba." This was said while Saguru was completely facing away from him while their other straggling classmates began to filter in, some of then barely beating the sound of the bell.

"Eh?"

"Meet me in the library at first break. We have some research to do and you're something of a subject matter expert on the topic, I expect." With that, both boys rose to greet thier teacher along with the rest of the class.

Kaito was most thoroughly confused._ Well, I guess that I'll figure out what he's referring to when we get there._

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_I've created a pair of monsters._

This was the only possible, though frustrating because it was rather directly and undeniably _his_ fault, explanation that Kudo Shinichi could come up with. He found his mind yet again wandering to a few days ago, when a certain pair of spotlight-hogging, ego-bloated idiots had made their horrible attempts at detection- namely the not-so-dynamic duo of Mouri Kogoro and Suzuki Sonoko. _There was no way that I could knock both of them out at the same time- it would not _only _have looked way too suspicious, but I also couldn't have imitated both of their voices at once. Agasa-hakase really needs to put some sort of speed dial or memory setting on this stupid voice imitator in my tie. Then there was the fact that they both kept running all over the damn place so I couldn't nail either one with the dart... _

Thanks to his being forced to waste the better part of his energy that night just chasing the pair around and trying to keep them on the right path (or _any_ sort of path at all- just thinking about that night was enough to make his eye twitch in unpleasant recall,) Shinichi felt like the trip the the crime scene that he'd so desperately wanted had been...well, rather unproductive and very wasted. _I barely got to actually look at anything, I was so busy trying to make sure that Kogoro-ojisan and Sonoko didn't run off on some random tangent...Geh, that trip became so pointless! _About the only solid lead (well, more of a gut feeling really if he was being totally honest with himself) that he'd developed so far was a theory he'd developed after the second of the kidnappings: Whoever was doing these kidnappings- or vanishings, or whatever they would turn out to be- was ultimately after the very slippery and equally charismatic master thief Kaitou Kid.

_Now I need to figure out how they've managed to execute these kidnappings so perfectly and so quickly, especially right in the middle of the magician's shows, _Shinichi thought darkly. He pretended to do the currently assigned classwork of copying some basic kanji symbols while really sketching out rough diagrams of the four stages and arenas the magicians had been operating in when they suddenly vanished. _Let's see if I can draw this out from memory...the first one disappeared right about here in this arena...the second magician at about this spot here in that arena..._The meitantei was too engrossed in his reflections to notice a freckle-faced, brown-haired boy sneak up behind his desk with an inquisitive expression on his face after his own kanji work had been half-completed, deciding that his friend Conan looked very intent on something that wasn't their boring assignment and wanting to know what that something was.

"What are you working on over here Conan?" Mitsuhiko asked in a stage whisper with a roguish grin as he peered over Shinichi's shoulder, gently tugging at the paper the other boy was sketching on after deciding that it looked more interesting than their current work. Mitsuhiko then succeeded in getting to hold it in his hands for further inspection after winning a few moments of struggling tug-of-war with his now angry friend. "This isn't kanji, that's for sure," he remarked a bit more loudly as he studied Shinichi's crude diagrams. "Is that supposed to be the kanji for bird?" This was followed by a barking laugh as the other boy indicated the first of Shinichi's drawings. "That one there looks more like a zero!"

"I'm_ trying_ to work on a case right now, please give me that back to me" Shinichi hissed quietly before he realized what he had just done. _Me and my big mouth..._This was followed by him burying his face in his hands and letting out a disgusted 'Ugh' after looking over to Shiho for sympathy and merely getting a rather amused, knowing smirk from the tiny scientist; the chain reaction to that particular word from the Shonen Tanteidan had already begun.

"A CASE?" cried Genta from his seat two desks down and to the left, causing the sensei to look up from her work of grading papers and place her finger to her lips in a stern 'shush' motion before she refocused on her work. Genta bowed deeply in apology before sneaking up to Shinichi's desk. "A mystery? Where? What? Who?"

"C'mon, tell us all about it Conan!" demanded Mitsuhiko as he rapped his fist lightly on Conan's desk in a display of mock anger. "Spill it, all of it! You were working on a top secret case without telling the rest of us about it?"

"A mystery you're working on? What is it about, Conan? Did it come in our mystery box?" asked Ayumi brightly as she hurriedly finished her assignment and slid over to Shinichi's desk as well.

_Aww, man. I didn't want to bring them into this but I _know_they won't leave me alone until I tell them what I'm working on. _"Well, have you guys seen those magician disappearances that are all over the news?" This was answered by three eager, enthusiastic nods and one slightly less enthused one. "I was thinking it might be a good idea for us to try and figure them out. I think we can solve them." Shinichi displayed the other three diagrams he'd sketched. "I was just trying to figure out how they vanished in the middle of their acts since I got the assignment done early."

"Well, whoever kidnapped them must have figured out how their tricks worked so that they would know the best time to kidnap them at, right? But aren't those top-secret magician secrets that they don't ever tell to anyone but their assistants if they have one?" Mitsuhiko rubbed his chin thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling as he spoke.

"Alright, children. Time for recess." The cheerful voice of their sensei caused the students to quickly file out of the room and onto the school's playground.

"Let's play Hide and Go Seek!" cried Ayumi as they entered the area where the monkey bars and sandbox were. "And no cheating this time, Genta!" she added in a teasing tone as she and the other three prepared to go find various places on the playground to hide.

"Just because I'm tall enough to see over the hedge doesn't mean I cheat when you guys hide, Ayumi!" Genta yelled in an equally teasing tone before placing his hands over his eyes. "But fine, I'll go first. I'm only counting to twenty."

After he rapidly counted to twenty, Genta began his search. Knowing that Mitsuhiko usually liked to hide under piles of leaves if there were any available, Genta was delighted when he discovered a particularly large pile of leaves in the far left corner of the school's boundaries that was nearly lined up against the fence. "Alright Mitsuhiko, I'm finding you first this time!" he cried as he raced through the rest of the kids on the playground and over to the pile before kneeling down and having something that was moving catch his eye- a hand that was moving back and forth rapidly to his right. But it was an awfully _large_, adult hand that looked nothing like his friend's.

"M-Mitsuhiko, is that you?" Genta began spreading the leaves around in order to find whoever or whatever was attached to that hand.

"N-no...my name is..." Genta panicked at the unfamiliar male voice until he realized that it was probably the person who the hand belonged to. He walked towards the sound of the voice to find an adult's face sticking out from under the edge of the leaves; he realized that this weird adult was using the leaves like a sleeping bag or blanket for some reason before Genta's eyes grew huge as he placed where he had seen that face before.

"M-mister, stay awake okay? I'm going to get you help!" Genta wheeled around and began bellowing "GUYS, COME OUT! HURRY! I JUST FOUND KOBIYASHI AKASHI-OJISAN!" as he ran wildly around the commons area. He repeated this three times more as the Shonen Tanteidan quickly emerged from their hiding places and assembled.

The playground erupted into panic and chaos as the other kids began to realize that there was a _person _buried under the leaves.


	6. Chapter 6

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Well, at least he succeeded in his mission to get tantei-san to investigate the magician's disappearances, even if it definitely seemed to have been more of the other boy's own idea instead of Kaito nudging him down the path. (Not that Kaito minded that, less work for him.) After all, and Kaito knew this from his rather long, extensive personal experience with the blonde meitantei as Kaitou Kid, there probably weren't too many individuals around who were more dogged, determined or thorough than the meitantei Hakuba Saguru when he began to pursue the truth behind a case or a person.

Kaito was just beginning to fully mull over how nice it would be having the half-Brit working _with_ him instead of against him for once when he tripped over something relatively small. Something that had _also_ been vaguely human-shaped, and that hypothesis seemed confirmed when the object yelled out 'OW!' as Kaito himself very nearly lost his balance while the diagrams of magic tricks he'd been busy sketching at Saguru's request slipped out of his grasp. He was busy righting himself while the sketches went fluttering around all over the floor around him and whoever that he'd tripped over.

"You should be more careful about where you're going." Unusually intelligent cerulean eyes that were framed by black glasses glanced up at Kaito and briefly filled with irritation. They suddenly filled with a puzzled curiosity as the boy turned his attention to the sketches and more carefully studied what Kaito had dropped.

_What the hell is tantei-kun doing here?_ Kaito immediately knew that it would probably be the wisest course of action to act like he had no clue who the other boy was at all. _I_ also _don't like the way he's looking at the diagrams I'm drawing that Hakuba asked me for yesterday either. Kudo'd better not be getting any ideas that I'm involved with their kidnappings because I'm not! Well, except for the fact that it pretty much seems like the kidnappers are after_ me_, or rather my alter ego Kaitou Kid, at this point_. Kaito had to admit, though, that starting out by trying to puzzle out when and how the magicians had been kidnapped during their routines was probably a good start to figuring out their disappearances and also exactly why the magicians were being taken. He (naturally enough) knew pretty much how their tricks were pulled off, just as Saguru had assumed he would, so Kaito had agreed to draw out the most probable positions of the equipment used and where it would be relative to the stage at the various points of those finale tricks.

"Sorry about that, kid," Kaito offered mildly as he took the proffered papers from the child who wasn't really a child at all, and he chuckled inwardly as he could almost hear tantei-kun methodically chanting 'I am a little kid, I am a little kid' over and over in his head while he merely offered Kaito a rather gritted smile in reply. "Thanks for the help picking my stuff up. Hey, where are your parents at?" OK, he was having _way_ too much fun messing with Kudo; Kaito made a mental note to rein himself in before his ribbing of the other boy got too out of hand and the shrunken meitantei actually got _suspicious_ of him knowing his true identity. Tantei-kun was no certainly slouch in the detection department himself, and in fact had probably come closer than tantei-san had a time or two to catching Kaito during one of his heists.

"The police brought me here from school to answer some questions they had. Friends of mine found one of the missing magicians at our elementary school this morning during recess, and he was brought to this hospital."

Kaito felt his carefully cultivated poker face slip for the briefest of moments thanks to sheer adrenaline, relief and shock before he remembered who he was talking to and his rapidly forcing the mask back into place quickly followed. Then Kaito realized that the other boy had said the sentence so colorlessly that he couldn't tell whether the magician had been brought in dead or alive, but the point was that one of them had _finally_ been found. Now he was going to have to try and weasel as much information as possible from Kudo about the subject without being too horribly obvious about that fact- like what floor and room the magician was staying in if possible. This was not going to be easy. "Oh? Where did exactly you find him at?" _They dumped him at an elementary school? That's weird. I hope for the mental health of the kids there that he was alive if that's really the case..._

"On our school's playground. Half-buried under some leaves, but alive." Apparently deciding that he'd had enough of the conversation, the other boy turned and began to head the way that he'd been going, leaving a highly relieved but now anxious thief in his wake.

_OK...now to figure out where that magician is at in this place so I can ask some questions, like if he was taken by some guys in black outfits...after I get these drawings to Hakuba of course._ He rather rapidly went from anxious to annoyed when he went to the lobby Hakuba was supposed to have been waiting at to discover that there was no trace of the blonde to be seen. _Bah, where'd he get to? I told him it would only be a few minutes, I was just dropping Mom off a couple things._

"Well that was most thoroughly unproductive and complete waste of time."

"What was? Here's the equipment diagrams that you wanted by the way." Kaito extended his rather full arms that were laden with the diagrams he'd actually stayed up the better part of the night drawing, not that he'd _ever_ let Hakuba or anyone else know that. It was guilt that was driving him, he knew, as well as a sense of urgency that had only increased after he'd heard that they found the first of the magicians still alive. _That means that hopefully the other three are out there alive still. Of course if the kidnappers stick to their current pattern it will only be a few more days before yet_ another _magician vanishes...Well, from the group of magicians that's still performing after these disappearances started that is._ An ever-growing number of magicians had declined invitations altogether and ceased performing shows since the second kidnapping had happened, fearing for their continued safety amidst the bizarre string of vanishings.

"I tried to go speak to the magician that they've apparently got staying here. Kobiyashi Akashi, the one that went missing just over a month ago now, was found very much alive if slightly starved and sleep-deprived at an elementary school this morning. It appears that the police have run into a bit of an issue with him, however." Hakuba took the diagrams from Kaito and began tucking them into an empty book bag that he'd brought with him for the purpose of carting them back to his home.

"Huh? What exactly-"

"He won't talk about what happened to him while he was kidnapped or who his kidnappers were. At all, whatsoever." Saguru shook his head lightly, but his tone was full of the disappointment he was clearly feeling. "The only thing he's willing to say is that the other three are still alive, but if he talks too much he's afraid that they won't stay that way. Apparently, certain threats along those lines were made before they released him. Although I confess that I do find it very interesting that they left him at a school on a school night when they freed him. Perhaps his kidnappers _wanted_ him to be found."

"Aww you have go to be kidding," Kaito muttered almost as much to himself as to Saguru even though he well knew that Hakuba almost never kidded or joked at all period, much less about an investigation or case. _Well there it all goes right back to square one I suppose because he won't talk. Damn it!_

"Oh, what are you doing here Conan?" Kaito realized that Hakuba was looking at something (or rather, speaking to a rather nosy someone) that was over his shoulder and down low to the ground, and once he'd said the name Kaito turned around to see tantei-kun giving them both a highly inquisitive look that was very carefully couched behind a bright, childlike expression. Kaito had to admit that the other boy seemed to have become rather adept at wearing a kid's mask, all the better to hide his true identity with; Kaito probably wouldn't have even noticed that hidden curiosity if he hadn't been looking for it or known what to look for in the first place.

"Hey, I remember you from the Detective Koshien thing, and I've seen you at some of Kaitou Kid's robberies too" began Shinichi brightly. "What are you doing here Saguru-niisan? My classmates were the ones that found the missing magician who's here at the hospital now; he was left at our elementary school kinda buried under a pile of leaves." He pointed to Kaito before adding "Just like I told him a few minutes ago!" with a cheerful smile.

"I see. Well, actually I've been attempting to figure out what's going on regarding the kidnappings myself with the assistance of my classmate Kuroba here."

"Then maybe you can find out what Kobiyashi-ojisan told my friend Genta," replied Shinichi brightly, instantly causing both Saguru and Kaito to look down at him.

_What are you talking about, tantei-kun?_ "So, uhh, Conan, just what do you mean by that?"

"Well, he said something to Genta while we were waiting for the ambulance to show up. But Genta won't tell anyone what it is."

"Aww, I told you to quit bugging me about that Conan! And stop telling everyone about it! It's _a secret_!" A rather large boy that Kaito would have never thought to be in only the first or second grades stalked up behind the shrunken meitantei with his hands on his hips. "I'm _only_ supposed to tell that detective guy who always goes to Kaitou Kid's heists. The one that has the bird sometimes. But I dunno what he looks like exactly, Kobiyashi-ojisan didn't tell me anything more than that."

"That sounds like he was referring to me," offered Saguru with a slightly puzzled expression after a few moments of silence all around. "I own a hawk named Watson and I help Nakamori-keibu, the head of the kaitou Kid task force at Kid's heists quite often."

"Hmm." Genta gave Saguru a mistrusting look before turning to Shinichi, who nodded his head.

"He's telling the truth, Genta. Now what is it? What did he say?"

"I'm _only_ telling _him_ like Kobiyashi-ojisan said!" Genta replied firmly before indicating with a wave of his hand for Saguru to follow him over to an unoccupied corner, where the other boy squatted down before Genta whispered whatever the secret was into the blonde's ear. After about five seconds of listening, Saguru stood back up with a neutral expression and the comment "I see. Thank you for telling me." Genta then walked away from the meitantei with a happy smile on his face since he'd fulfilled his mission.

"What did he say?" cried Kaito and Shinichi in perfect unison when Saguru reapproached their position. This was followed by the pair looking at each other warily.

"Actually, it was a message that I'm supposed to try and deliver to Kaitou Kid at his next heist," explained Saguru. _Of course, I highly suspect that if I tell Kuroba what that child told me, I_ will _be delivering that message to Kid._ _And he_ should_ probably hear it..._ "I suppose since you two are both clearly so _very_ interested in hearing the message I can tell it to you." He cleared his throat and began reciting the message from the hospitalized magician. "'Kaitou Kid needs to watch out for the men in black at his next heist. They're planning to make a move then. But they can't know that he's been told, because they'll kill the rest of the magicians. And don't let him turn himself in to them, either.'" Saguru rather intently watched Kaito during the delivery of the little speech without being obvious about it, and he could tell by the slight wince during the last sentence that Kaitou Kid surrendering to them as a last-ditch resort to prevent anyone else getting hurt _had_ indeed apparently been somewhere in the back of the other boy's mind. _No One Gets Hurt is one of his foremost mottoes, after all...If he really is Kid he has to be feeling a great deal of guilt right now._

"Men...in black?" Kaito blinked as he looked down at tantei-kun, whose eyes were currently completely, totally free of the childlike innocence that he usually tried so hard to affect as he asked the question.


	7. Chapter 7

Dun dun dun!

* * *

"No way. Not doing it."

"Come _on_, Hattori. Would I be asking you to do this if it wasn't important? It's not like I'm asking you to work the case with him or anything like that, I just need you to try and worm as much information as you can out of Hakuba. I can't exactly ask him the questions I need to ask without looking suspicious." Shinichi paced back and forth inside of his room in order to help vent his quickly mounting frustration with his Osakan friend, realizing that this phone call he'd managed to sneak while Ran and Kogoro were busy putting groceries away was going to be a waste of time thanks to Heiji's rather deep-seated dislike of the other meitantei.

"So call the guy yourself. I'm just a _little_ busy right now. Murder by palm tree in an Egyptian museum exhibit down here." Shinichi then heard the all-too-familiar sounds of police sirens and policemen's firm but garbled voices that were probably ordering onlookers around faintly in the background of their conversation. "Besides, I'm not dealing with that jerk."

"I didn't mean _right_ now. But Hakuba Saguru knows more than just about anyone regarding Kaitou Kid from what I've heard and read. He probably has a suspect or two in mind who should really be watched for their own safety if-"

"Then say you looked up his number or something and ask him for whatever you want. But I have thirty suspects to start interrogatin' and that ahou Kazuha's cooking waiting for me once I'm done here. Later."

Shinichi leveled an angry glare at his phone after Heiji hung up before shoving it back into his pocket. He then allowed himself a disgusted sigh as he tried to begin formulating a good, unsuspicious reason for Kudo Shinichi to be calling Hakuba Saguru about the missing magicians- and also how best to lead the conversation where he would want it to go. _I know that Hattori and Hakuba didn't get along too well during the whole Detective Koshien thing, but why does Hattori have to be so stupidly stubborn? If it really _is_ the same Black Organization I've been dealing with that's kidnapping these magicians with what seems to be the ultimate goal of capturing Kaitou Kid then Kid, whoever he really is, is in a great deal of danger right now. Knowing how many information gathering resources they have at their disposal, I'm sure they have their own theories about who Kid is- or they may actually even know already. But outside of the Organization I'm certain that Hakuba has the best idea of who Kaitou Kid may be under that hat and monocle..._

It was then that Shinichi thought back to the guy that Hakuba had said he'd been working with last night- the one that had been holding all those sketches and diagrams of the various magic tricks and stages of the theaters where the magicians had vanished. _That was sure strange. I wonder if Hakuba asked him for those drawings...Well, no time to worry about that too much right now. I should be trying to think of a decent-sounding reason for Kudo Shinichi to call him. I _have_ to get him to see the danger that the Organization presents somehow but I also have the feeling Hakuba wouldn't exactly listen to a six year old kid about it. Although I do hope that he won't get too nosy and ask me where I've been for the past seven or so months when I call him. _True, he _had_ used the temporary cures that Shiho produced a time or two in some particularly desperate situations to solve cases as his true self, but he had asked the police at the scenes to keep his presence a secret and they seemed to have been fairly thorough in honoring the request.

He rubbed his temples lightly with one hand as he rummaged through the contacts in Edogawa Conan's cell phone until he came across Hakuba Saguru's own cell phone number. He had nearly forgotten that the blonde meitantei had provided him with his cell number after the events of the Koshien as well as Hattori although Shinichi had never had an occasion to use it until now. _Alright...how to get through this call. I think I'll open by explaining that Edogawa Conan gave me his number after I asked him if he knew anyone who might be a good source of information regarding Kaitou Kid. Now I just have to hope that he picks up- _His thoughts were interrupted as he crossly realized that footsteps were approaching his door, the light soft gait that he immediately recognized as Ran's. _This was _not _a good time for her to pick to walk in..._

"Conan, what's wrong? You look so serious." Ran opened the door and entered his room carrying a new suit jacket she'd apparently purchased for him in her hand while wearing a somewhat worried expression.

"Oh! Mitsuhiko called me for help with a really hard history question we had on our homework. I'm worried about whether I got it right for him or not." It wasn't much and it sounded unconvincing to even him, but it was the best that he could pull out of his head on such short notice.

"Don't be silly. I'm sure you helped him get it right Conan," she replied as she ruffled his hair slightly before placing the new jacket in his hands. "Try this on, Dad found it on sale mixed in with the men's rack of sale clothes," Ran added brightly before beginning to exit the room again. "Put it on and come into the kitchen so Dad and I can see how it fits, I'm going to go start dinner and Dad's meeting with a client."

_Yes, Mom. _Shinichi made a face after Ran closed the door before he slipped off his usual blue jacket and tried on the deep green one Ran had foisted off on him. Well, the sleeves were a tad long but nothing that couldn't be fixed up with a little of Ran's sewing handwork. Just then, he blinked as his cell phone rang- his _real_ cell phone that was still being paid for by his parents. _Who the hell would be calling me on that phone besides Ran? Most likely not Hattori, he's in the middle of a murder investigation... _He ran over to his door as the first ring finished, carefully locking it before placing a few obstacles in the way of its reopening. He then rushed over to his closet as the second ring began and shut himself in it before flicking on his voice modulating bow tie and selecting the voice that it seemed like a lifetime since he'd last actually possessed. He frowned as he saw that his phone showed the number as 'Unlisted'- so it wasn't anyone he knew after all- before he hit the answer button and answered it in a wary tone. "Hello?"

"Hello there tantei-kun."

Shinichi dropped his cell phone as shock ran through his body after he finished registering the owner of the smooth, even voice on the other end of the phone. That confidence...and that stupid nickname the other speaker had addressed him with...there was only one person- or more specifically one amazingly devious, intelligent and ridiculously slippery master thief- that it could even _possibly_ be. But how in the _hell _had Kaitou Kid gotten this number? It was unlisted and always had been, even back before he'd been shrunk. Then again, this _was_ Kaitou Kid; it was probably best not to ponder that question too much and just know that it was most likely obtained by some bizarre, illegal means that probably involved a disguise. After taking a deep breath to steady himself and quickly attempting to prepare himself mentally to match wits with the wily thief, Shinichi slowly knelt down and picked up the phone back up. "Sorry about that; dropped the phone." He was grateful that he somehow managed to sound so calm and collected.

"Let me take a guess. You're wondering how I found this number." This was followed by a soft, somewhat gleeful chuckle that quickly raised Shinichi's hackles. "Sorry tantei-kun, but a magician doesn't ever reveal the secrets behind their tricks. Part of the code, you know."

"What do you want?" Shinichi's rapidly mounting irritation was soon surmounted by his inborn meitantei's curiosity. What _did_ Kid want with him? the other boy (Shinichi was fairly certain that Kid really _was_ one, or at least above the age of fourteen but below the age of twenty-five- he was far too limber and his frame still too undeveloped to be much older) had probably had to go through at least _some_ difficulty to acquire his unlisted cell phone number, so there must have been a purpose. Besides, Kid was highly deliberate and methodical; he never did anything without a good reason behind it and Shinichi was sure that he was probably that same way outside of his signature white outfit, even if he wasn't obvious about it.

"Why _would_ I call you, tantei-kun? I know you're smarter than that, _you_ tell _me_." Shinichi could hear what sounded like paper crinkling in the background on the other end. Most of the time he would have assumed that the caller was reading a newspaper or something along those lines, but with Kaitou Kid Shinichi knew there was an equal chance it was a carefully and deliberately created white noise so Shinichi would have a hard time tracing the call based on what he heard. And Shinichi was _also_ dead certain that an attempt to trace the call, even if he'd had the resources at his disposal at the moment, would go nowhere. "Or do you need a hint to help you out? I'd hope not, it's been all over the place after all."

Shinichi's brows rose in mild surprise as he immediately latched onto what was going on here. _Kid must have figured out or heard that they're after him. And he probably doesn't want any more magicians landing in the hospital; he does operate with that nonviolent moral code of his after all. _Shinichi didn't think, though, he could go so far as to presume that Kaitou Kid might actually be feeling _guilty _about the fact that people were getting kidnapped and held against their will simply because they bore a physical resemblance (or dressed in a similar manner to) Kid. Shinichi had strongly suspected that Kaitou Kid was the true target of the magician's kidnappers after the second disappearance, had been nearly certain after the third vanishing and had finally had his suspicions confirmed thanks to that message meant for Kaitou Kid that Hakuba had related yesterday.

"I think that you've figured out the target of those magician kidnappings. You." Shinichi then felt a smirk creep across his face as he came to a realization that very nearly made him laugh aloud except that he didn't want Kid to hang up on him- and he also didn't want a curious Ran knocking on his door and asking what was going on. Suppressing the laughter and managing to sound at least mostly serious he finished with "And you want my help to try and figure out what the kidnappers want with you, right?"

"Gold star, tantei-kun. Very good." A particularly loud paper crackle after the admission was followed by "You see, I may be a thief but I'm a magician as well, as you know. And whoever's doing this is not only harming my fellow magicians, but also scaring most of the rest of them into not performing any more. I really don't like that much, it goes against my philosophies. But at the same time I don't exactly feel like handing myself over to the kidnappers and I also have a rather funny feeling that going to the police for protection wouldn't be the smartest move, you know? My identity could very well be exposed either way. Hence this call."

"But why come to me in particular?" He then realized that Kid had called Kudo Shinichi's cell phone and referred to him- the supposedly absent Kudo Shinichi- as 'tantei-kun.' Ice filled Shinichi's stomach as the horrifying, full implications were realized very quickly. _He knows who I really am? _Was this a highly subtle method of blackmailing him into assisting? Shinichi then found himself shaking his head; something about that scenario simply didn't fit for some reason that he couldn't quite define yet. Shinichi found that he could barely bring himself to focus on what the thief was saying as he continued to frantically wonder how Kid had figured out who he really was.

"Because I have a healthy respect for an intelligent opponent. You and tantei-san are both very clever. Not smart or resourceful enough to actually _catch_ me, of course, but that's to be expected isn't it?" Another chuckle. "I _do_ hope you're not too busy to help. I don't want to entrust this case to just anyone after all. Choosing some random tantei from the phonebook isn't a route I'd prefer to go."

"I don't really have much of a choice in the matter, do I?" retorted Shinichi in a somewhat angry tone, his feathers ruffled but also not completely surprised that Kaitou Kid seemed to have begun the conversation not only holding all the cards but also seeming to know that in the end, Shinichi wouldn't refuse the request to help. He almost wanted to say no out of sheer spite, but knew (just as Kid also seemed to know, irritatingly enough) that his conscience wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he refused.

"I'm _so_ very glad to hear that. It means that my earlier phone call to tantei-san wasn't wasted," replied Kid smoothly and cheerfully; Shinichi could almost hear the superior smirk working its way across Kid's normally emotionless features as he talked. "You should be expecting a call from him shortly. Goodbye for now, tantei-kun." With that, the thief hung up the phone and left Shinichi staring at his own cell phone with a mixture of fear and puzzlement until it started ringing again. _Is this 'tantei-san', whoever that is? _

"Hello?"

"Is this Kudo Shinichi?" Shinichi's eyes widened as he recognized the slightly accented Japanese from yesterday at the hospital. _It's Hakuba Saguru...so Kid called him? But that doesn't make any sense...and why is Hakuba calling me?_

"Yes it is," replied Shinichi in a somewhat puzzled tone. "How can I help you?"

"What do you mean by that? _You're_ the one that called _me _and left a message with this number asking to arrange a meeting tomorrow about these magician vanishings, Kudo." The blonde meitantei sounded a bit puzzled, not that Shinichi blamed him a bit.

Shinichi rubbed his eyes and let out a quiet, exasperated huff as he realized that Kid had called Hakuba all right-using _his_ voice. _That idiot Kid! I can't exactly meet anyone as Kudo Shinichi...well, unless I use one of the cures Haibara developed but I hate to use one unless it's really an emergency... _"Oh...right. I'm sorry, Hakuba. I didn't realize who this was at first."

"Well, I do have a two-hour window tomorrow afternoon at about four, luckily enough. If you still wanted to meet that is. I must confess that your message surprised me a great deal."

Shinichi suspected that Kid had even known of that availability before he'd called but he suddenly found himself in possession of a great chance. "I do want to meet." Shinichi's firmness surprised himself, but then he realized that this was an absolute, golden opportunity to try and explain at least some things about the dangerous organization that Shinichi very strongly felt was in the back of everything going on. "I have some information on a group that I strongly suspect may be behind the kidnappings but I don't exactly feel comfortable discussing it over the phone."

"Then I'll see you at four P.M. tomorrow. Do you have the address?"

They hung up after Shinichi wrote it down. He'd have to pop the cure almost immediately after school, quickly get dressed and then try and hail a cab since it was across town in a rather highbrow neighborhood. He hated 'wasting' one of the cures on a meeting like this, but Kid had pretty much forced him into a corner. _Of course, I'd be willing to bet that Kid is beginning to feel pretty cornered right now as well. _And based on what Shinichi had been able to deduce about the mercurial thief, he was also willing to bet that being cornered was not a situation that Kid liked in the least.

"CONAN!" Ran began knocking firmly on his door, causing Shinichi to jump slightly. "Do you not like the jacket or something? You haven't come out yet and shown how it fits."

"The sleeves are just a little big is all, Ran-neechan. I'm sorry, I got busy playing. I'll come out now." He walked over and unlocked the door before offering Ran a bright child's smile while holding up his arms to showcase the slightly too long sleeves. "See?"

He would have to make arrangements later to slip one of the cures as well as the lone 'adult' outfit he had well-hidden into his backpack.


	8. Chapter 8

:( Sorry for the wait, life interfering with writing for the loss.

* * *

"Are you positive that this is such a wise idea, Kudo-kun? Every time you use one of the temporary antidotes it lessens the time that the effect lasts, as you well know. You can't just do this meeting over the telephone using your voice modulator or something along those lines instead?" Shiho looked wary and mildly concerned as she watched Shinichi pack the lone 'adult' suit outfit that he had on him into a very hidden spot in his backpack in preparation for the meeting he had arranged with the other metantei tomorrow afternoon. Shinichi had followed Shiho to Agasa's after school and told her as well as the professor about his plans so they would know where he was in case something went wrong. Besides, they had _needed_ to know what he was doing tomorrow since his cover story to Ran was going to be that he was at Agasa's working on a school project with Shiho for a few hours.

"I think...I kind of _have_ to go, actually. Hakuba would probably make the assumption that I'm Kaitou Kid disguising my voice if I asked him for a telephone meeting after I already agreed to a face to face one. Although that _was _how this stupid thing got set up in the first place- Kid using my voice to call Hakuba." The shrunken meitantei wore an expression that mingled anger and puzzlement, still thoroughly frustrated and irritated that Kaitou Kid had so expertly backed him into a corner. If it had just been a matter of wanting to find out what information Hakuba Saguru possessed regarding the case, Kid could have simply disguised himself as Kudo Shinichi and shown up to the meeting so Shinichi was still puzzling over the thief's possible motivation. "I wish I knew why Kaitou Kid felt the need for Hakuba and I to meet. He kind of forced my hand and he hung up before I could ask him, not that he probably would have explained himself even if I _had_ asked."

"Well you did say that he stated he wanted you and Hakuba Saguru in particular to work the case," replied Shiho mildly as she partially busied herself with the almost laughably easy (well, laughably easy for a teenaged scientist) homework their class had been assigned. "It's not surprising that he's requesting some form of assistance, actually. Remember that Kaitou Kid himself is in a great deal of danger if your theory about the kidnapper or kidnappers really being after Kaitou Kid is correct. So it's in his favor as well as the kidnapped magicians' if the mystery behind the kidnappings can be solved." She placed her pencil down and offered Shinichi a sly smirk. "Besides, I would have thought that you would take him choosing you to work the case as a sort of compliment, Kudo-kun."

"I take it as nothing of the sort!" Shinichi retorted darkly with a snort while his face contorted in ire, accompanying the emphatic statement with a stomp of his foot as Agasa entered the room. "That guy had the nerve to call me on a very hard to get unlisted number and-"

"Everyone thought that he'd died or retired, you know. Err, Kaitou Kid, I mean," began Agasa as Shinichi and Shiho both turned their attention to him. "I still remember the headlines after his thefts suddenly, inexplicably stopped. You two were probably around, oh, seven or eight when it seemed like he'd suddenly decided to quietly ride off into the sunset." He rubbed his chin with his hand and looked skyward as he added on "It sure seemed out of character for that guy to go out so quietly, though..." in a thoughtful tone.

"What do you mean?" OK, so Shinichi already had a fairly good idea of what Agasa was referring to- Kid would have had his picture next to the dictionary definition of a spotlight-craving exhibitionist, after all- but he hoped the scientist would elaborate more. After all, Shinichi had been pointed towards the path of truth in a murder case's twisted forest more than once thanks to offhand, random comments that meant nothing in and of themselves but were so much more when placed in the frame of the larger bloody picture. Plus as Agasa had pointed out he'd been a kid (an _actual_ kid, that was) back then so his memory of events was fuzzy at best.

"Well, you know how Kaitou Kid is- big, flashy performances and public announcements complete with screaming fans showing up," chuckled Agasa. "So it seemed pretty strange when he just...stopped suddenly without any sort of finale or public goodbye. But perhaps he just wanted to quietly, quickly retire without making a spectacle out if it for some reason," shrugged Agasa lightly as he sat down. "To be honest, ever since his reappearance I've always wondered whether it's him- the _original_ Kaitou Kid. I mean, his sudden reappearance after close to eight and a half years of complete silence was always more than a little strange to me." Agasa frowned slightly for a few moments, looking down at the carpet and concentrating. "Well, that and the fact that for Kid's first few heists after his reappearance, he really didn't seem to know what he was doing. As if, well, as if he was learning as he went along. Surely you noticed it, too? You nearly caught him a couple of times, after all."

"Now that you mention it, yeah. He did seem like he was making things up on the fly to an extent, especially on his first couple of heists." Shinichi sighed as Conan's cellphone chose just then to ring, no doubt Ran wondering where he was at. Sure enough, Ran's worried and somewhat angry tone greeted him after he answered. He knew that there was only one place he was going with her in that particular pair of moods-straight home. As he made his excuses and apologies for worrying her while heading out the door, Shinichi just regretted that he hadn't been able to glean more out of Agasa, who'd opened up some very interesting new possibilities regarding Kaitou Kid- ones he might just have to bring up to Hakuba during the meeting tomorrow.

* * *

The next afternoon, Shinichi realized with a disgusted sigh that the school day was dragging along at an extra-slow clip, although thankfully there were only about five minutes left until the final bell rang at long last. He'd grown tired of hearing about the magician rescue a million times over from nearly every kid in almost all of the classes at the school since they'd found him under the pile of leaves, and he watched the clock's hand slowly march forward even though he knew better and that it was probably only making the time pass more slowly in his head. _I hope that one dose will last me through the meeting, it should though... _Agasa was supposed to pick him up in front of the school and drop him off at Hakuba's, so Shinichi was impatiently waiting for the day to end so he could head to the restrooms, take the antidote, recover from taking said antidote and get dressed.

An hour and a half later, Shinichi rang the front doorbell of the almost-mansionlike house that Hakuba had given as his address before he adjusted the old baseball hat Agasa had brought with him over his head. Shinichi was grateful that Shiho and Agasa had thought of the hat- he'd been so caught up in how he was going to try and both impart and glean the information he needed to that he hadn't even given a single thought to the fact that he would need a disguise just in case someone spotted him before he entered the house. He heard footsteps approaching the other side of the door before it swung open to reveal a slight white-haired woman wearing a rather large pair of glasses and a simple grey pantsuit.

"Welcome. I'm Miyano Shiori. You must be Saguru-botchama's afternoon appointment. He's expecting you in the library. Please follow me." This no-nonsense statement was followed by the woman turning on her heel and striding purposefully into the house before shutting the door after Shinichi entered, then quickly indicating with a wave of her hand to follow her into the right hallway. Shinichi followed her until they reached a pair of double doors that Shiori opened to reveal a rather large, well-stocked library surrounding an expensive-looking sofa and love seat. Hakuba Saguru was in the center of the sofa sipping tea, and Shinichi couldn't help but notice the new-looking blue baseball cap that the other meitantei was wearing on his own head. _What the hell...?_

"Would you like anything to drink?"

Shinichi waved Shiori's offer off politely before sitting down on the love seat across from Saguru. He decided to open by perpetuating Kid's lie, not that he had much of a choice now that he was here. "Thanks for agreeing to meet me on such short notice." _Although it was sure short notice for me, too..._

"Thank you, Shori. I'll call if you're needed." Shiori nodded to Saguru before exiting the library and shutting the door behind her. He then turned his attention to his guest. "So, Kudo-kun, where _have _you been these past few months? I thought you'd vanished off the face of the Earth for a while there. Which was part of why your phone call surprised me so much." Saguru took another sip of tea. "Although I did hear from some police contacts I have through my father that you'd shown up a time or two, solved the crime then vanished as quickly as you'd appeared."

"I've...been away. There's a case I've been working on that's kind of become a main focus of mine that I've had to chase all over Japan after." Shinichi removed the baseball cap after scanning the room to make sure there were no windows that people could see in from the street through. He followed the vast understatement by standing up and beginning to pace back and forth a little behind the love seat. "There's a very dangerous group that I've been working on trying to bring down that's known as the Black Organization, and you could say they're what prompted my call to you...after what Conan told me his friend Genta relayed to you." He gave Hakuba a pointed stare after the quickly conceived lie rolled off his tongue. "One of the group's signatures is dressing from head to toe in black."

Saguru cocked an eyebrow before setting down his tea and leaning forward slightly. "Well, it is true that the magician they found relayed a warning to me to give to Kid about men in black...but what makes you think it's the same men in black that you're going after?"

"Mostly the fact that this string of kidnappings has their methods all over them- well, except for the fact that they actually let any ofthe magicians live. The planning that's obviously going into the kidnappings, the fact that there's virtually no evidence left behind aside from some blood, the-"

"I see. But do you have any hard evidence?"

Shinichi resented the interruption at first, but he had to concede that Hakuba had made a very good point- one he needed to address and quickly. His gut was practically screaming at him that the black-jacketed criminals who had shrunk him were behind the vanishings, but that was really all he had to go on- a hunch. Hell, the magician in the hospital hadn't even given a description of his assailants beyond 'dressed in black'- that was way too generic to jump to the conclusion that it was the same group. But he refused to ignore his first instinct- the question was how to best present the case that it was the Black Organization.

"Well, these guys are most likely stalking Kaitou Kid, correct? Have you seen any weird people at his heists lately?"

Saguru's eyes narrowed slightly. "Now that you mention it, the police mentioned chasing off a pair of men in black trench coats and matching black fedoras from a back alley near one of Kaitou Kid's heists a month or so ago- haven't seen either of them since though."

Shinichi visibly stiffened- _It IS them, I KNEW it!-_ before replying "That's them- the Black Organization. Or two of them I should say; the black trench coat and fedora is their preferred uniform." After studying Saguru's somewhat skeptical face he added "Not that's that's absolute proof of course, but that's definitely their normal mode of dress when they're not in disguise."

"Well if you're such an expert on them, why do you think they want to kidnap Kaitou Kid?"

"Maybe they need something stolen and he wouldn't cooperate with them when they asked," replied Shinichi unsurely as he finally sat back down. "Of course part of the problem with these guys if it _is_ them is that they're everywhere. And I really mean that- they've infiltrated all kinds of industries and political offices. I've spent almost seven months trying to figure out everything that they're involved in and have barely scratched the surface."

"Hmph. Maybe it wasn't too smart of Kid to unretire," remarked Saguru dryly as he polished off his current cup of tea and poured another. "I really do wonder about that sometimes- why come back so suddenly after eight years?"

"You're supposed to be one of the foremost researchers on Kaitou Kid- why do _you_ think he suddenly reappeared?" Shinichi was genuinely curious, and he decided to grasp at the offered opening to obtain the information he'd agreed to this meeting to obtain- a list of people who might possibly be Kaitou Kid.

"I don't think that the current Kaitou Kid is the same Kaitou Kid from back then, to be quite frank about it." Saguru rose up and walked over to a shelf, where he pulled down a large thick scrapbook with the word 'KID' emblazoned across the cover in very precise handwriting. He then placed it on the large coffee table and flipped it open to reveal several faded newspaper clippings. "There's large enough and consistent enough differences in height and body frame when you compare these older pictures of him with newer ones that I suspect it's an entirely different person." _A sleeppranking idiot that I let stay at my house, _thought Saguru darkly as he adjusted the baseball cap he was still wearing slightly with a scowl.

"So what are you thinking? A relative, maybe? But then what happened to the original Kaitou Kid, or do you have a theory on that as well?" _C'mon, give me information...I need to find the guy and warn him!_

"I don't know what precisely happened to the original Kaitou Kid but yes, I have a theory. I think he died in a tragic stage accident eight years ago." Saguru flipped the scrapbook to some pages that detailed the horrific stage accident and ensuing death of the master magician Kuroba Toichi. "After Kuroba Toichi died, Kaito Kid's thefts completely ceased. Well, until his apparent resurrection a year and a half ago," Saguru finished as he shoved the scrapbook towards Shinichi so he could examine it.

After he turned the scrapbook towards himself, Shinichi's heart dropped into his stomach as he felt the all-too-familiar pangs and burning that heralded the antidote's effectiveness- and the time in his true age- was going to come to an end very quickly. He quickly got up and made his way towards the door. "Thanks for the information, I gotta go," he yelled back to Saguru as he began a sprint for the front door while his whole body began to feel like it was on fire and his head began to pound. _What the HELL? I just took the antidote not even two and a half hours ago! If I don't hurry up and get out of here-_

"Are you alright? You look like you need to lay down very badly, if you don't mind me saying so," commented Shiori as she approached Shinichi with a puzzled and worried look on her face. "My goodness, you're sweating a lot! Are you running a fever? I'll go get you some water, OK? Just stay there, I'll be right back."

"I just need to go, alright? I appreciate the concern but-" Shinichi paused briefly as he gripped his stomach and almost doubled over in pain, thankful that the maid(?) already had her back turned and was exiting the room. "But I just, uhh, need some medicine that's back at my house." He wobbled towards the front door and almost made it to the point of turning the handle before he felt himself very nearly pass out. "I have to leave and get back there, tha- that's all."

"Kudo, what's going on? You suddenly began looking very ill back there-"

The last thing Shinichi heard before he slumped to the floor and passed out was Hakuba's puzzled question.


	9. Chapter 9

*cackles evilly*

* * *

Well, _crap_.

Shinichi sighed deeply as he finally willed himself to slowly open his eyes, fighting off the last dull thuds of the splitting headache and slight light sensitivity that always wound up accompanying his shrinking back into Edogawa Conan. He also knew as he took in the details of the wooden ceiling that this was most likely a guest bedroom of some sort at Hakuba Saguru's home, and that he'd _also_ probably shrunk back down into his child-sized body right in front of his fellow meitantei's eyes. What the hell had happened? Sure there had been a somewhat established pattern of the temporary antidote seeming to work for a shorter and shorter amount of time with every new use, but a mere two and a half hour duration was more than a little on the ridiculous side.

It was then that Shinichi recognized the ring tone he'd chosen for Conan's phone insistently coming from his left, and he also realized that both of his cell phones had been placed on a small nightstand by the bed he was resting in. With a sudden burst of irritation at his current situation and what had happened Shinichi reached over and answered the phone. "What do you want?" The ire in his tone was barely contained, and the professor's response certainly didn't do much to improve Shinichi's mood.

"Finally! We've been trying to get a hold of you for at least an hour. You have to be careful! According to Haibara-san, that antidote I brought for you to take was mistakenly taken from the remains of an older experimental batch. She thinks that it may have lost a quite a lot of its potency over time-"

"Well it would have been fantastic if you two would have realized that and called me about it _before _I wound up passing out at Hakuba's doorstep clutching my chest while trying to escape as it began to wear off." Shinichi didn't feel the need to add anything else; he knew the professor would quickly pick up on the implications- and the fact that it was Conan's voice on the other end of the line.

After a few seconds of complete silence, Agasa finally responded in a somewhat panicked tone. "Oh no! Don't tell me that you-"

"Yes, I did." Shinichi's eyes narrowed as his timbre grew somewhat cold and laced with irritation. "And just why did I get a cure from an old batch in the first place?"

"Well," came the rather sheepish reply, "I grabbed it from the wrong right hand drawer-"

Shinichi felt his eye tic a single time before he willed himself to calm down and begin focusing. The damage had already been done, after all; it was time to make the best attempt he could to control it. Besides, Shinichi knew that Shiho would chastise Agasa far better than he could for the mistake (if she hadn't put him through the wringer about it already, that was.) "I see. Well, I need you to come get me since I was _supposed_ to be over at your house. Bring some of my clothing, too; tell Ran I fell in mud or something." He hopped out of bed and ruefully realized that he was wearing his now very large white dress shirt as makeshift pajamas before searching for and finding his carefully folded pants that were on a chair in the room. This was followed by Shinichi pulling the piece of paper with Hakuba's address on it out of the pocket and reciting the address so Agasa could write it down.

He finished pressing the end button on his cellphone just before a light, polite knock came from the other side of the door. Shinichi quickly jumped back into the bed before calling "Come in"; he didn't like the idea of someone seeing him sweep the floor with a shirt that had fit him perfectly only hours before.

"I thought you might like to borrow these." Hakuba Saguru's voice echoing faintly from the other side of the door was followed by a small set of light blue formal boy's clothing flying through the air and landing in a loose, haphazard heap at the foot of the bed. "Shiori's always been a terrible pack rat, but it seems like that trait came in handy this time. You can come back to the library when you're dressed."

As he began to pull the clothes on, Shinichi was at first deeply grateful, then somewhat puzzled as to why the half-Brit seemed...well, so completely unperturbed about the fact that a teenager had physically turned into a child right under his nose. Saguru's behavior especially puzzled Shinichi because he knew that such a bizarre event must have piqued the other meitantei's highly developed and honed curiosity. As he finished dressing Shinichi was still wondering how the hell he was even going to _begin_ and try to explain his dramatic age reduction and the whole back story of Edogawa Conan's creation. With a deep sigh, he opened the door and walked towards what he hoped he was remembering correctly as the door to the library they'd been in when the antidote had begun wearing.

"That's an...interesting medical condition you've got there, Kudo-kun."

Shinichi had found the room after all, judging by the fact that it looked like the same book-encased room they'd been in earlier and the fact that Hakuba was also occupying it. Shinichi resisted the urge to let out a bitter-sounding and very sarcastic 'Ha, ha' in reply to the blonde as he reluctantly made his way to the couch and hopped up into it before turning and facing Saguru. "You're not exactly going to find it in any medical book or journal." Shinichi followed this dry sentence by looking down and offering an array of said books and journals spread out all over the large coffee table Hakuba had apparently been recently poring over a rather pointed glance.

"I thought as much, but it never hurts to try and do research." Saguru leaned back and gave Shinichi a slightly puzzled stare before taking a sip from the teacup in his hand. "I'm still in somewhat of a state of disbelief. People...people don't just _shrink_, Kudo. If I hadn't watched you turn back into a child with my own eyes I would never have believed it." The blonde then shook his head, apparently still somewhat in a state of shock. Not that Shinichi blamed him, of course. "So...what exactly _did_ happen to you?"

"Actually, you could say that it's more along the lines of what _didn't_ happen to me." Shinichi decided that since Saguru had given him the opening, he'd explain at least some of it before Agasa arrived- he supposed the other boy deserved that much after what was probably a rather major shock to the system.

"What _didn't_ happen to you? What exactly do you mean by that?" Saguru polished off his tea and began to straighten up some of the medical books and journals he'd laid out all over the table, eventually picking up a stack and heading towards the bookshelves.

"I was supposed to die." Over the quiet sound of Saguru reshelving the books and journals Shinichi continued. "If you want to go back to the very beginning, it started the day that I helped solve a murder over at Tropical Land. After the police arrested the murderer, I followed some men that were dressed from head to toe in black to a blackmail exchange at a secluded area of the park." He shifted uncomfortably before adding "After the meeting began I made a nearly fatal mistake- one that _should_ have been fatal, actually. I tried to get pictures of the blackmail exchange to give to the cops and that allowed one of the men in black to get the drop on me from behind and knock me out. Then that same guy force fed me what was _supposed_ to be a deadly poison that wouldn't leave any trace behind."

"Except that instead of the stuff killing you as was intended, it de-aged you back into a child - physically, that is." Saguru shook his head slightly as he re-assumed his position on the couch across from the love seat that Shinichi was sitting on. "It just sounds so completely unbelievable..."

"That's exactly what happened." The other boy let out a sigh. "I've tried to be extremely careful and not let too many people at all know who I really am. I've been living with Mouri Kogoro and his daughter, Mouri Ran at Mouri's detective agency using the name of Edogawa Conan since I woke up in this body. Of course, neither of them knows who I am."

"So why did you take the risk of coming here tonight? I'm sure you're hiding your identity from almost everyone and and using that pseudonym for very good reasons. And how...how did you become your normal age again? I presume some sort of antidote for whatever they used that isn't permanent?"

"Precisely. Of course this afternoon is the shortest time that it's ever lasted. I use the antidote very sparingly because every time I take it the stuff works for a shorter and shorter amount of time." He paused and looked squarely at Saguru. "And you can thank that stupid thief for me being here. He called me on my unlisted number- how he managed to get it I have absolutely no idea- and backed me into a corner."

"So that message..." Saguru sighed before rubbing his temples lightly. "I should have known. I thought that it was exceedingly odd that you had called me out of the clear blue sky to discuss the kidnappings, especially when you seemed to have vanished so suddenly and thoroughly from the public eye. Of course, now I know the whys and hows of that, as completely and utterly defiant of logic as the those reasons are." He poured a fresh cup of tea and offered Shinichi tea or water, Shinichi gratefully taking some of the latter. "That call I got that led to this meeting was Kaitou Kid using your voice, wasn't it? I should have thought of that possibility immediately- he'd naturally be interested in figuring out whatever is going on since he seems to be the primary target of the kidnapper or kidnappers."

"Yeah, it was him. Believe me, I wasn't too happy about it at all. He was so damn smug..." Shinichi kicked the couch lightly. "But if he really is being pursued by the same group that tried to kill me, he's in very real danger. The group is ruthless and also has connections in some very, very high places. If we can figure out what they want with him, though, it would be a start...You're an expert on the guy, right Hakuba-kun? Do you have any ideas for who Kaitou Kid really is?"

"Actually, you've already met my prime suspect. At least in passing." Saguru rose up off the couch and grabbed another thick book from the shelves. "You remember that magician we were discussing earlier, Kuroba Toichi?"

"Yeah. My parents knew him, actually- I very vaguely remember going to his funeral after he died. Do you think he faked his death or something and came back to restart his career as Kid after all this time had passed?"

"No, I don't think so. What I theorize is that a relative of his has assumed Kid's mantle, most likely to try and draw Toichi's killers out. But who knows if that's the actual reason? I tried asking Kid why he stole once, and he just mocked me." Saguru's irritated tone was also reflected in his eyes momentarily. "Well no use thinking about that now. Back to the subject at hand- I think it's a relative of his. A very specific blood relative to be precise." He flipped to a page and pulled out a photo of the guy Shinichi remembered tripping over him the day before. "Kuroba Kaito, Kuroba Toichi's only son. And the current Kaitou Kid if my suspicions are correct, and I'm certain that they are."

"So why haven't you ever acted on them?"

"Evidence. Or lack thereof." Saguru let out a sigh before he returned the photo to its place and placed the binder back where it belonged. "You've seen how he operates. Kid plans out his crimes with far too much deliberation to actually leave any evidence behind. The gloves and hat aren't _entirely _for show although Kid certainly does cause quite the crowd to gather at his heists."

"No fingerprints and a minimal chance of hair evidence being left behind," replied Shinichi as he gave Saguru a knowing look and received a nod in reply. "Does Kuroba know that you suspect him of being Kid?"

"Of course he does. He's too intelligent not to have picked up on it by now and to be frank, I haven't exactly been subtle about my suspicions to him either. The ironic part is that when I first starting attending school part-time in this country so that I would be closer to Kid's heists I actually wound up being placed in the same class as Kuroba of all things."

"Saguru-botchama, your...guest's ride has arrived." Shinichi could tell from her tone and slightly pale skin that the older woman was still recovering from the shock she'd no doubt endured.

"Thank you, Shiori. Please show Conan to the door. I'll be doing some research in here if I'm needed."

Shiori gave both boys a puzzled look before nodding and escorting Shinichi to the door without a word, willing herself to only glance down once with that same curious look at the young boy walking beside her who was really a teenager...somehow.


	10. Chapter 10

Alright already, I get it plotbunny! *surrenders to Evil Demanding Plotbunny With Fangs that cut in update line*

* * *

Kaito supposed that it was high time to use a resource he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of sooner during his own investigation into the strange magician vanishings that seemed to be connected to his alter ego- the many forums and chat rooms that comprised the Internet-savvy segment of the magician community. After he sat down at the computer he'd rented utilizing both a disguise and false name in the Internet café he'd chosen due to its huge size and very large clientele base, Kaito began to surf through the not insubstantial list of sites and forums that he'd memorized hoping to find some sort of clue or lead. His eventual goal was to be able to point tantei-kun and tantei-san in the right direction with any findings after figuring out just how to go about getting the information to the pair.

There was also the rather interesting fact that tantei-kun had definitely seemed to know at least _something_ about those guys who'd shown up at his house and put his mom in the hospital, or at the very least known some information about whatever group that the pair was a part of. The very serious facial expression Kudo Shinichi had displayed back in the hospital, however quickly the other boy had covered it up once he'd realized he was blowing his cover, had immediately raised Kaito's suspicions. This had later led to Kaito sneaking over to Jii's and deciding with a sudden burst of rather mean-spirited but necessary inspiration to corner Kudo and force him into a meeting with Hakuba, in the hopes that tantei-kun would at least let _something_ slip to tantei-san about the men. At least it had been pretty easy to find some old taped radio interviews and a few TV specials containing Kudo Shinichi's voice before his call to Hakuba, since his recall of the meitantei's tone and pitch had been a bit rusty.

He had wanted to be out of Hakuba's house when the meeting between the two meitantei he'd taken such pains to arrange took place (although he'd planted a bug and was recording the conversation for later use, as long as he'd chosen the correct room- Kaito _really_ hoped that Hakuba had met with Kudo in that stupid library.) Kaito had therefore decided to do his current research then risk a quick trip with Jii back to his house to make sure that his mom had locked everything up and to grab some clothes. After she'd been released from the hospital she had finally agreed at Kaito's very insistent urging to go and stay with relatives in another city for at least a week. He also wanted to check and see if the two men dressed from head to toe in black that had been driving that black antique Porsche were still skulking around in the general vicinity of the house; he had a few highly unpleasant surprises in store for them if they were.

_Hey, here's something! Finally... _Kaito had after a good couple of hours hit what appeared to be pay dirt on a smaller site that was generally used for magicians arranging to either purchase, borrow or rent some of the larger and/or more expensive equipment used in various tricks from fellow magicians. The post's subject was 'The missing- A possible connection?' He was especially interested because the post had just been put up on the site about five minutes ago and it was _also_ the first thread that he had found even remotely referencing the string of vanishings during his search. He clicked on the link to the post and found that the post contained nothing more than a single question, a solitary query that caused his false, bushy white eyebrow to cock in puzzlement.

_Hey, aren't all of these vanishing magicians- or at least members of their families- a part of that weird group?_

Finding his curiosity most thoroughly piqued, Kaito hit the 'Reply' button and decided to respond with a question of his own. _Group? What 'weird group' are you talking about? _He chose to not post the reply using any sort of name, though he _had_ been sorely tempted for a few moments to sign the question using the alias '5648/4' before deciding with a small, discontented sigh that the better he buried his larcenous alter ego for the time being, the better. Well, at least until he got a better handle on what exactly was going on, why those black-clad men were in pursuit of him and why even though they looked by appearance to be in the same group as Snake they didn't seem to know with certainty that Kaitou Kid was a Kuroba. Still wondering about that and its possible significance, Kaito clicked 'Submit' only to be met with an error message that indicated there was _'No such post on the forum_'.

He blinked twice before checking the main forum page only to discover that, indeed, the thread had apparently been deleted or taken down after not even ten minutes. Well, maybe Jii would know something, he hoped.

* * *

"Hey Kudo, I take it you've been following this string of magician vanishings that's been all over everywhere?"

"Yeah, Hattori, I have been. That's what I was trying to get you to call Hakuba Saguru and get information about earlier, remember?" Shinichi sighed and rummaged around for a pen and paper with his free hand as the voice of his friend Hattori Heiji drifted through the line. _And now because you wouldn't help me, Hakuba Saguru knows that I'm really Kudo Shinichi..._

"Whatever. Well, we've got a magician who's vanished during his finale down here in Osaka now, by the name of Oonishi Isamu. The guy apparently decided to take his Disappearing Act finale a little _too_ seriously last night."

_This is the first magician kidnapping that's taken place outside the greater Tokyo prefecture, _the shrunken meitantei realized as he hastily scribbled down a few notes on a small piece of paper that would be easily and quickly hideable if Ran knocked on his bedroom door. _If this newest case turns out to be connected to the others- and I'm fairly sure it will be- this doesn't look good at all. It hasn't even been a full week since the previous kidnapping; that could be a sign that whoever or whatever group is behind this is getting more desperate... _

"...present, though." Heiji was apparently waiting for Shinichi's reply to something that Shinichi hadn't heard due to his thoughts drifting elsewhere.

"Sorry, Hattori, I didn't quite catch that. What was that just now about a present?"

"Well, not an actual present. But that second magician that vanished- uhh, Uchihara Kojiro? He was left bound and gagged in the dressing room belonging to this newest guy."

"Say _WHAT_?" Shinichi's first thought was that it was a nothing short of a miracle that the second magician was alive; his second thought caused him to narrow his eyes in puzzlement as he finally realized what had been bugging him since they'd found the first magician tied up under the leaf pile at his school. _It's not like the Black Organization to leave anyone that could possibly relate any sort of information about them alive..._

"He was left in Oonishi's dressing room, sorta banged up but otherwise in decent shape. And he's not all that was left. There was apparently an envelope pinned to the guy's blazer that was addressed to Kaitou Kid."

"Did they let you see what was in the envelope?" _Why did they leave the envelope with the magician like that? The kidnappers should have known there would be police swarming the place and I doubt Kid would touch a crime scene that's crawling with cops with a ten-foot pole unless he was feeling particularly brazen...or desperate._

"Ehh, they wouldn't let anyone but the detectives in charge of the scene see what was in the thing. But I did see that it looked like it was a single piece of paper- a note or a letter maybe."

"Is there any way that you can try and get your hands on it? It's important; Hakuba might be able to-"

"What's that guy gonna be able to do? It's not like he's been able to even come close to catching Kid or anything."

"He's classmates with one of the people that he suspects most of being Kaito Kid. If you can find out what's on that paper he can probably figure out a way to get whatever is on that paper to the guy."

"How do you know so much about Hakuba all of a sudden? He didn't seem like he'd be the type to reveal too much about himself even if you two did have a meeting."

Shinichi let out a sigh that mixed irritation and resignation and rechecked that his bedroom door was locked before replying. "Hattori, he knows who I really am now- or rather, who Edogawa Conan really is. No thanks to you, I might add. If you would have just called him liked I'd asked-"

"How the hell did that happen?"

"Long story short, after you didn't help me Kid backed me into a corner, my antidote didn't last for the amount of time that it should have and I wound up passing out on Hakuba's doorstep. Then we discussed some of the suspects after I woke up-"

"Kid backed you into a corner? What exactly do you mean by that?"

"He called up Hakuba using my voice and left him a message that pretty much forced me to arrange a meeting- I don't want to know how Kid managed to get my number. I wanted to warn Hakuba about the guys in black and also try and get what information I could out of him, so I took an antidote and went to meet him. Unfortunately, Agasa-hakase grabbed an older antidote so it didn't last nearly as long as I was counting on." Shinichi quickly grew angry when he realized that Heiji was trying to contain a fit of laughter and not succeeding all that well. "Hattori, I do _not_ see what's so funny at _all_-"

"Just thinking about what that overstuffed shirt Hakuba's face must have looked like when he saw you pass out and then shrink, that's all." Still trying to suppress a few snickers, Heiji added "You got a couple more minutes, or is nee-chan expecting you? I'm gonna try and snag one of these copies of whatever was in the envelope that they're starting to pass around."

* * *

"Alright people! Let's get this briefing underway." Megure looked around the room at his detectives. "As you've all no doubt heard by now, the second kidnapped magician was found a couple of hours ago in Osaka, tied up in the dressing room of another magician who's now gone missing. He was a little roughed up but alive. The hospital has indicated that Uchihara Kojiro could be going home as early as tomorrow afternoon with any luck." Glancing down at the faxed piece of paper in front of him, Megure added in a somewhat more somber tone "Of course, there _is_ this other problem of the letter left pinned on the magician that was addressed to Kaitou Kid..."

"Have you contacted the Kaitou Kid task force about this note yet, Megure-keibu? They should probably see if they haven't yet..." Takagi Wataru didn't like the note or its contents at all.

"Nakamori Ginzo, the head of the Kid task force, has been made aware of the contents, yes. The Osaka headquarters called him almost immediately after they read the note. Naturally I don't need to tell any of you that the contents of the note aren't to be made public until we decide how we're going to handle releasing the information."

"So are we operating on the theory that these kidnappers are going after Kaitou Kid? This note seems to make it pretty plain that they are." Satou Miwako's mind had been churning nonstop ever since the call from the Osaka police headquarters.

"We don't have any hard evidence of anything at this point. All we can do is figure out how to get this letter out there and then watch Kaitou Kid at his next heist, if he even decides to schedule one anytime soon. It wouldn't surprise me if he's decided to cool his heels for a while- it'd be the smart thing to do in his shoes."

"And that train of thought is probably exactly _why_ the kidnappers have left this. Specifically to smoke him out." Takagi glanced down at the copied note with a half grimace.

"Exactly." Satou gave a nod. "And knowing Kid, it will probably work. He's always operated with that No One Gets Hurt policy of his, after all..." Her eyes narrowed as she studied her own copy of the note, four sinister typewritten lines that had been on very plain, easily obtainable white paper inside an equally common envelope:

**ATTENTION KAITOU KID**

**WE'RE GROWING VERY IMPATIENT.**

**IF YOU DON'T SURRENDER YOURSELF AT YOUR NEXT HEIST**

**WE MIGHT JUST STOP RETURNING THEM.**


	11. Chapter 11

"So there you are, Kuroba. I take it you've already heard or seen something about what happened down in Osaka." Saguru paused and sipped his morning tea before carefully centering the brim of his baseball cap, more than slightly irritated that washing his hair a total of eight times since getting up hadn't made much headway into getting rid of the bright orange shade. The fact that he'd actually been forced to go meet Nakamori-keibu with said carrot-toned hair had put him in an even more uncharitable mood, especially towards the prankster-slash-temporary houseguest who'd done the dying.

"No. Just because you're in the habit of reading stuff that'll be lining your bird's cage later doesn't mean that I am." Kaito sat down and began drinking some coffee, something he'd been very happy to find in the kitchen while scrounging around for something besides water, milk or tea. Just the death glare that Saguru had given him for daring to use one of his teakettles to brew the coffee with had been totally worth it as far as he was concerned. "Besides, I had just gotten up when you got back from wherever you were at, remember?"

"Apparently there was yet another magician kidnapping last night that took place during a finale. The second magician who was kidnapped around three weeks ago was left tied up in the other magician's dressing room, interestingly enough." The blonde shifted his paper around a bit, studying the write-ups on the case that were in the early editions. "That returned magician was _also_ left with a note addressed to Kaitou Kid pinned to his suit."

"Oh really? I wonder what they want with that guy." _What was that post that got deleted so quickly yesterday referring to? That 'strange group' it mentioned…I should check with Jii-chan later on, maybe he'll know something. Could they have been talking about those guys dressed all in black?_

"Well the police haven't made the note public yet- they're still debating on how best to release the contents." Saguru poured a fresh cup of tea from a pot that was to his left. "Of course, thanks to Nakamori-keibu calling me down to the station I was able to get a hold of a copy of the note early this morning while _some _of us were still sleeping." Watson shifted slightly on his shoulder as the meitantei took another sip of tea. "It's an interesting conundrum. I'm curious how Kaitou Kid is going to handle the situation."

"What do you mean by that?" Kaito quickly chided himself mentally for sounding anything more than mildly interested, but he couldn't help it. "Do the kidnappers want him to steal something for them or something like that?"

"Take a look for yourself. Here's my copy of the note." Saguru slid a piece of white paper that had previously been hidden under a section of newspaper over to Kaito. After giving the magician a few moments to absorb the note- and noting that there was definitely some fear and puzzlement crossing Kaito's face while he was studying said note- Saguru shrugged lightly and continued the conversation. "It appears, as you can see, that they want Kaitou Kid to surrender himself to them at his next robbery. And they're using the lives of the other missing magicians to force him to cooperate."

_What the hell do these guys want with me or from me? What do they mean that they're 'getting impatient'? If I _don't _cooperate with them, though, it looks like they'll just keep kidnapping magicians…and not _only_ kidnapping them, from the sounds of it likely killing them as well. _There was absolutely no mistaking the somewhat mocking, very thinly veiled threat in the last line of the note. He hated that he was probably going to wind up going along with their demand , but the jerks had sucker-punched him with his own No One Gets Hurt policy and Kaito knew that they knew that as well- doubtless the reason that they'd threatened the other magicians in the first place. Watson's screech brought Kaito back out of his wildly spinning internal thoughts.

"It seems that whoever the kidnappers are have collectively decided to put Kid in between a rock and a hard place, eh?" _Just what are you going to do now, Kuroba? Damned if you do, damned if you don't._

"Well, Kid seems like he can handle almost anything. I'm sure he'll figure out some way to take care of things." _Just as soon as I can think of a plan, that is. _Deciding that he wanted to move away from the topic as quickly as possible, Kaito changed the subject once he remembered the meeting that he'd arranged the other day. "Hey, that's right- Didn't you have some meeting the other day, Hakuba? Was it Kid coming to your for help or something?"

"Very funny, Kuroba." Saguru got up and walked Watson over to where her usual plate of cut up meat was sitting, the hawk expertly gliding from his shoulder to her perch before beginning her meal. "No, it was actually another tantei- Kudo Shinichi. I was surprised to get a call from him; he hasn't made many appearances in the last few months."

"Oh. What did he want to meet with you about?"

"He wanted to speak with me about the kidnappings, actually. " _As if you didn't know exactly what he came here for, since you were the one that left me that message and forced him into the meeting with me in the first place. _"He suspected, as I did, that the vanishings had something to do with Kaitou Kid long before that hunch was actually confirmed and he wanted to meet with the person considered one of the leading authorities on Kaitou Kid."

_So he did manage to show up after all…and he must not have been a little kid. I wonder how Kudo managed to pull that one off? I was expecting him to call him on the phone or something like that. Oh well, time to go see if I can get some more information from Jii-chan…_

As soon as Kaito left the room, Saguru picked up his cell phone and called Shinichi. "Can you talk?" After Shinichi responded affirmatively Saguru hurriedly began to impart information since knew that Shinichi might have to return to playing the role of Edogawa Conan at a moment's notice. "I showed him the note like we discussed this morning; now I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what he actually does about it. Knowing him, it will probably be something brash and thought up on the spur of the moment." He watched Watson eat as he listened to the shrunken meitantei's questioning reply. "Why do I think that? You've seen him at his heists; flying by the seat of his pants once he's cornered - and somehow managing to make an escape work despite impossible odds- is his stock in trade." After Shinichi asked another question, Saguru cocked his head slightly in thought, mulling the question over and waiting a few moments before replying. "He seemed to have about as much of an idea of who's behind this as we do, actually."

* * *

"Jii-chan, do you know anything about a group of magicians or a secret society that Dad might have possibly belonged to?" Kaito had decided to go to Jii since he suspected that if anyone would know his dad's dirty laundry, it would be Kuroba Toichi's longtime stage assistant and compatriot in crime. He supposed that he _could_ have gone to his mom, but Kaito wanted her to focus on her recovery rather than trying to answer questions that might bring back painful memories. The questions would also probably only make her worry about him even more than she already was. Besides, it was crystal clear that whatever these guys were after, it was something to do with Kaitou Kid and it was Konsuke Jii who had been- and still was- Kid's faithful assistant.

"Well, I know he belonged to a few different groups that arranged things like charity performances at hospitals and similar things. You seem to have something different in mind, however, young master."

"Yeah. These magician kidnappings that have been happening lately? Hakuba showed me something that proves that the guys are after me- well, Kaitou Kid." Kaito pulled out the note that he'd 'borrowed' on the way out and handed it to the older man, letting Jii study the note closely.

"I…I see. And they've also shot an arrow right into Kid's Achilles' heel." Jii handed the paper back to Kaito after a few moments and walked over to his couch and sat down, an expression of concentration on his face. "You know, I wonder if this has anything to do with whatever it was that your father stashed away over at your house- well, in his hideout I should say. He never _would_ let me see what it was, kept insisting that it wasn't anything I should concern myself with. It stuck out in my mind because it was one of the only times that I ever saw him hide something from your mother as well as myself."

"Well, maybe we should go over to my house and check the pit then?" There was a small section of Kaitou Kid's hideout that was little more than a massive stockpiling of different items that his father had collected by legitimate means over the years, organized in a somewhat haphazard manner that had never really made any sense to either Kaito or Jii the couple of times that they'd attempted to make any headway into figuring it out. Kaito had decided a while ago to stop even trying to make sense of it and just left it alone aside from an occasional round of dusting as a sort of memorial to his late father, giving it the nickname of 'the pit' because it really did seem like a hole that his dad had randomly tossed things into.

"That's an excellent idea. That probably _is_ the most likely hiding place for something that Toichi would want to hide." Jii followed this by frowning lightly before looking at Kaito closely. "Are you sure that it's the smartest idea to go back there? After what happened and everything…"

"Well, it's really the only possible lead we have at this point, right? Besides, if anyone _did_ try and get into the house without me they would have sprung one or more of the traps that I rigged before I left."

* * *

Ten minutes later, the pair was outside of the Kuroba home and Kaito finished temporarily disarming the last of the various traps he'd placed on and around the front door.

"Let's go then. The quicker that we're in and out of here, the better I imagine." Jii waited for Kaito to open the door, then followed him inside as the magician disarmed a few more traps that he'd set.

"Come back this way. Stay right behind me or you'll probably set off something, alright?" Kaito carefully picked his way through the maze-like set of traps that he'd constructed

"I gathered as much," replied the older man with a chuckle. "Although I _do_ wonder what state the house would be left in if your poor mother came to try and pick some clothes up without you."

"Eh, she knows where most of these are. She could probably pick her way through, not that I want her coming back here until those kidnappers have been taken care of." _Along with the guys that put her in the hospital…_

"I wish that I knew a little more about the weeks leading up to your father's death," commented Jii after a few moments of the pair slowly making their way towards the portrait that held Kuroba Toichi's picture. "Then perhaps we could get this mystery solved that much sooner."

"With Hakuba nosing around it'll get solved eventually. The guy's a real pit bull once he gets going, something that's actually a _good_ thing for me for once." _Not to mention that I have Kudo Shinichi working on it too- well at least I hope so. I still want to know how he pulled off showing up for that meeting with Hakuba in person considering how he looks now. I'll have to check the recording from that bug I planted in the library later..._

"Perhaps." Jii let out a sigh as Kaito activated the portrait of Toichi, the painting whirling about to reveal the first Kaitou Kid before stopping and allowing the pair inside. "I always did wonder just why he started stealing...That was something else that he never fully explained to me."

Kaito paused and whirled around to face Jii, staring in open amazement, his tone also conveying that disbelief. "Are you telling me that you helped Dad all that time and you _didn't even know why he was doing what he was doing_?"

"I was his friend and he needed the help," Jii replied with a shrug. "Besides, I figured that he had a very good reason for looking for something large and shiny that had something to do with the moon." He then grinned before adding "Of course now we know exactly what it was that he was probably after thanks to the conversation you overheard back when you first started your heists- Pandora seems to fit all of those those criteria pretty well."

_Could Dad really not have known what exactly Pandora was? But then again, he did steal a much wider variety of items than just gems, going off of what I've heard from Jii-chan. _"OK, let's get digging."

After an hour, the pair had systematically gone over every single item in the pit, both deciding that there didn't really seem to be anything out of the ordinary after all and the pair equally disappointed that their only real shot at a lead had failed to produce anything. "Oh well. It was a shot in the dark to begin with after all, young master," began Jii in a conciliatory tone as he noticed that Kaito was studying a very plain-looking wooden box with a somewhat puzzled expression. "What is it? Did you find something strange?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Did Dad ever do any charity work for or belong to a-" Kaito brushed the inside of the medium-sized light-toned wooden box with his fingers, apparently studying something engraved in it- "Do-na Par Society?"

"Hmm? I don't recall that name, no. Why do you ask?"

"This box- It's empty, but it was tucked way back in the very far corner of one of the shelves and turned at a weird angle so that it was barely visible. And it was the only box I came across on all of the shelves that was positioned like that." He handed Jii the box, which was empty and rather nondescript except for the inside of the lid, which had two lines of text and a somewhat stylized clover burned into the wood.

_Thank you for your contribution._

_Dona Par Society  
_


	12. Chapter 12

"Nakamori-keibu, sir."

"What is it?" Nakamori Ginzo was highly irritated and in no mood to talk to anyone, and he'd also made that fact rather clear since his arrival in the office earlier that morning. All he wanted to do was finish processing the paperwork from his consultation with Hakuba Saguru and then contact the Osaka police to see if they'd made any progress in questioning the magician that had been left in the dressing room. After waiting a few moments for the officer to leave, he realized with mounting ire that the young female officer was still standing there in the doorway to his office while holding a cordless phone and wearing a somewhat stunned expression. "Well? I said that I wasn't to be disturbed this afternoon so out with it!"

"You, ahem…have a call waiting." She cocked her head towards the phone while holding her hand over its receiver after she finished the sentence, still wearing a somewhat surprised look.

"Take a message," he replied gruffly after returning to his paperwork. "I already _said_ that-"

"I…really think that you'll want to take this particular call, Nakamori-keibu."

Ginzo looked up from his paperwork, narrowing his eyes and looking at the phone before turning his gaze to the officer. "Who is it? Unless it's Aoko calling in with an emergency I need to finish up this paperwork and then get on this conference call with the Osaka guys."

"It's Kaitou Kid." After noticing her superior's incredulous expression she quickly added a polite "Sir."

_He must have heard about the second magician being returned last night on the news. We haven't released the note that was left publicly yet but it wouldn't surprise me if he's figured out that these guys are after him. Kid's a lot of things but stupid sure as hell isn't one of them. _"Put him through, and try to get a trace going on the call if you can." He waited a few moments and then picked up the phone after half a ring, placing it to his ear before giving a gruff "The hell do you want?" that was a mixture of anger and curiosity.

"Afternoon, Nakamori-keibu. I _would_ say good afternoon but it's not _really_ a good one, now is it?" This was followed by Kaitou Kid's familiar chuckle, the successful-getaway one that always tended to leave Ginzo seeing the world in varying shades of red. "I'm sure that you're intelligent enough to not have your underlings waste their time with trying to trace this call." The statement was accompanied by just enough static on the line to make Ginzo suspicious that it was being artificially induced in order to drown out any potential background noise.

"Just get to the damn point already." _I should have known; as if he'd ever make such an elementary, careless mistake. _Ginzo decided he wouldn't call off the attempt to trace just in case Kid was bluffing, but another part of him already knew that it would likely be exactly as fruitless as the thief was not so subtly indicating.

"Ah, yes. The reason I called." Kaitou Kid cleared his throat carefully. "You could say that a little bird has informed me of the note that was left down in Osaka last night and what it asked of me." This was followed by a few seconds of tense silence. "I've decided that it's best to cooperate with them and hand myself over at my next scheduled heist; well, I'll do it as long as they meet some conditions that I've sent to several papers to be published. Now, what I was calling to arrange with you is-"

"Are you NUTS? We have absolutely no idea what the hell these guys are doing or where they're-" Ginzo leapt up out of his chair as he yelled, causing his chair to tip over with a loud bang. This in turned caused several officers in the next room to peer curiously from their cubicles and from their trips to and from the water cooler and coffee machines. He attempted to right his chair with one hand while giving the gawkers his best 'get back to work' glare.

"That's precisely why I've contacted you, Nakamori-keibu. So arrangements can be made for the police to follow me once this group started taking me to wherever they're hiding at. With any luck, the other magicians will be held at wherever they take me to."

Ginzo slumped down into his chair, rubbing his temples while wondering just how in the blue blazes Kaitou Kid had managed to get a hold of a copy of the note that had been left with the returned magician- or at least what the note had said. Then again, he supposed, it _was _Kaitou Kid. There had also been a part of Ginzo that had fully expected the thief to surrender himself once the contents of the note had been revealed to the public, though he certainly hadn't expected him to call and make arrangements to have him followed once he'd done it. "Look, this is dangerous, _really_ dangerous. I don't know if it's the smartest idea."

"_Please_, Nakamori-keibu. What I _do_ is dangerous. That goes hand in hand with performing quite a lot, especially my line of work." Ginzo found himself unable to argue with Kid on that point. "Besides, _not_ doing something about this particular situation would very much go against my number one rule."

"Yeah, yeah. No One Gets Hurt." Ginzo rolled his eyes slightly as he began writing down some rather sketchy personnel logistics for a possible tail of Kid on the notepad in front of him. "How are you going to contact these guys anyhow, if the paper doesn't get through to them for some reason? And you haven't even announced a heist yet, have you?"

"If they want me badly enough, they'll figure out my usual riddle- they never said anything about me having to actually _tell_ them what I'm stealing and when so they get to figure it out." This was followed by a particularly bad bout of static that Ginzo was fairly sure had covered up another chuckle. "Speaking of my riddle, for once your fine unit of law enforcers will _not_ be subjected to having to solve it so you'll have ample time to scout out the surrounding territory before my theft. I plan on delivering my advance notice to the owner later this afternoon, as a matter of fact."

* * *

"So Kudo-kun," began Saguru when Shinichi answered his cell phone at the prearranged time they'd decided on earlier that morning, "I just had something very interesting passed on to me. Apparently, Kaitou Kid called Nakamori-keibu over at the station sometime after I left."

"Oh really? What did he have to say?" _Time to see what Kuroba Kaito is going to do now that he knows about the letter, if that guy really is Kaitou Kid like Hakuba-kun suspects… _Shinichi was only half-focused on completing some very basic math homework from earlier in the week in his bedroom, the door locked and slightly barricaded in case Ran decided to check on his progress with the work like she often did.

"He told Nakamori-keibu that he found out about the contents of the note that was left addressed to him down in Osaka." A screech from Watson drowned out the blonde briefly; neither meitantei needed to mention how the event seemed to solidify Saguru's theory on who Kaitou Kid really was. "He's decided to surrender himself to them at his next heist exactly like they want him to do, but only if they'll agree to a small list of requirements that he's sent to several papers to be published in today's late edition."

"I don't suppose he told Nakamori-keibu what exactly he had in mind." Shinichi turned his pencil around and erased an answer he'd just written with a cross expression. _How on Earth did I manage to get five times five wrong? Gah, I need to focus at least somewhat on this stupid homework..._

"No he didn't, even though Nakamori-keibu asked him more than once. Kaitou Kid _did_, however, very kindly provide Nakamori-keibu with the precise time, date and target of his next heist so that the Kid task force could plan a good tailing route for once the group takes him away. He's seemingly operating off of the theory that the other missing magicians will be detained at whatever location they're taking him to."

"So what's he stealing this time?" Shinichi grabbed a piece of blank paper so he could write down the information. _Now to figure out how to get that Kid-freak Sonoko to drag Ran and I to the robbery…of course, all it should take with that girl is the mere mention of a Kid heist._

"The intended target is the film star Takiguchi Hiroki's large emerald, the Forest's Crown. It's currently on loan because it's going to be a centerpiece at the grand opening of a new designer jewelry shop- err, the Raven's Nest; Takiguchi is good friends with the owner of the shop so he agreed to let it be displayed. Kid is going to schedule the theft for ten P.M. on the twentieth."

"And then he's just going to turn himself over to these guys afterward? I really don't know if that's such a good idea. The Black Organization is expert at slinking into the shadows and just disappearing when they need to." Shinichi frowned and studied his now-smudged eraser. "Of course, I have to admit that I have a weird, nagging feeling in my gut that this group after Kid may not necessarily be the same guys that shrunk me."

"Why exactly is that?"

"There are a few different reasons I'm wondering about it actually." Shinichi lifted himself up from lying on the floor and walked to his dresser, tucking the completed homework into his backpack. "The biggest thing that sticks out to me is the magicians being returned by them alive, if it is the Organization behind this. They're usually ruthless about tying up loose ends and _anyone_ that could potentially reveal _anything_ about them would count as a loose end to those guys."

"I see. What are the other reasons?"

"The note also feels off...it seems way too flashy and obvious for them, the more that I think about it. If the Black Organization wanted to talk to Kaitou Kid they'd find a much more subtle way of contacting him, if what I've seen in the past is anything to go on."

"You said that their members usually wear long black trench coats and black hats, correct? Do you know if one of them also happens to have long blonde hair and a rather well-preserved antique black Porsche?"

Shinichi felt a large shiver go up and down his spine involuntarily, and it was a few moments before he could bring himself to reply. "Gin. That almost _has_ to be Gin; he's the Organization member that force-fed me the poison I was supposed to die from." Suddenly finding himself wondering why Saguru had asked that question, he became puzzled. "When did anyone see an antique black Porsche?"

"Kuroba saw the car, actually. It was the getaway vehicle for a pair of men in black trench coats and black fedoras that put his mother in the hospital a few days ago." There was a light shuffling of paper followed by Watson's irritated-sounding screech before Saguru continued. "I managed to…acquire a copy of the statement he gave police the night that he and a family friend, Konsuke Jii, drove her to the hospital before reporting the attack. She packed and went to stay with relatives somewhere up north almost as soon as she was released. I'm more than willing to bet that 'vacation' was at Kuroba's request in order to get her out of harm's way."

_Then the Organization really must be after him…but if it _was_ Gin then their MO is even more out of whack than I first thought. So what exactly _is_ going on here? Especially since the fact that they showed up on his doorstep seems to point to them knowing who Kuroba Kaito's alter ego is, which would make the kidnappings unnecessary. _Shinichi was growing more and more convinced with every passing moment that Hakuba Saguru's theory on Kaitou Kid's true identity was correct."Why'd you go checking on that in the first place?"

"Let's just say I grew rather curious as to why Kuroba's mother suddenly had to leave town and why Kuroba called me in particular to stay with- well, besides the obvious fact that he wanted me working on the case. He and I aren't exactly on the friendliest of terms despite being classmates so I assumed that something quite untoward had happened and it looks like I was correct."

Just then, Shinichi heard Ran knock on the door loudly. "Conan, it's time for dinner! And why is your door locked?"

"Be right there, Ran-neechan." Shinichi then hung up his phone after quickly hissing "Gotta go, sorry" before unlocking the door and heading out to dinner, hoping to distract Ran from the topic of the locked door. _I guess all we can do is wait and see what exactly Kaitou Kid has in mind…if the guy doesn't get himself killed first._


	13. Chapter 13

"So did you pick up the evening paper on the way home, Dad? Kid's written a note to the magician kidnappers I guess- it's all over every news channel on TV right now." Nakamori Aoko busied herself with setting the table for a slightly late dinner as he dad hung up his belongings in the hall closet and entered the living room.

"Of course I did. I had to see what that guy was going to do after he called me at work and told me this plan of his," Ginzo replied gruffly as he thunked a newspaper down beside his place setting while glancing at its headline with a deep frown. "I still can't quite decide whether Kid is crazy like a fox or just plain crazy, though."

"Why? What exactly did he put in the note?"

"It's a list of three things that he wants from the kidnappers before he'll agree to surrender himself to them at his next heist, which is due to take place five days from now." Ginzo opened the paper and scanned it over, although he already knew the list thanks to the buzz that had rapidly circulated around the headquarters of the Kaitou Kid task force as he'd been getting ready to head home for the evening. "The first thing he wants is undeniable proof that the other three missing magicians are still alive, second is a guarantee that the other three who are still missing will be released when he turns himself over and finally, he wants an agreement to end the kidnappings until he gives himself up so that magicians can get back to earning their livings."

"Wow. And he really thinks that they'll agree to all of that stuff?"

"Well, the group of kidnappers is obviously pretty desperate to get a hold of Kaitou Kid, for whatever reason. But you know, I'm really wondering if he's going to be who they're expecting him to be under that goofy-looking suit."

Aoko gave her father a puzzled look as she finished dishing out their dinner. "What exactly do you mean by that, Dad?"

"To be honest about it," the keibu began as he rubbed his chin and looked up at the ceiling, "I've always had this weird little feeling in the back of my mind ever since he reappeared that this Kaitou Kid we're chasing now isn't the same one that suddenly stopped stealing eight and a half years ago. Some of his behavior, especially back towards the beginning of his reappearance, just doesn't match up with the Kid from back then." He shrugged and began tucking in to the meal. "But who knows? It's nothing more than a gut hunch that I've never been able to prove or disprove."

"I think Saguru-kun is working on the case too. I overheard him discussing Kid with someone on his phone during our break between classes. Maybe he'll be able to help figure out what's going on."

"What the hell happened to his hair, anyhow? It was this weird shade of bright orange when he came to visit my office this morning but I couldn't bring myself to ask him and besides, we had other things to worry about."

Aoko managed to keep her amusement to some mild snickering after she finished chewing. "Well, Kaito is staying in one of the guest bedrooms at Saguru-kun's house while Kaito's mom takes a trip and apparently, Kaito sleeppranks."

"Say _what_?"

"Kaito sleeppranks- sets tricks up in his sleep." Aoko shrugged while she readied another bite of food. "That goofball can't even stop joking around while he's fast asleep."

* * *

"But what if they _don't_ respond to this, young master? Supposing that this letter you've sent only makes them angrier…" Jii shifted uncomfortably in his seat before getting up and pacing around his tidy living room, clearly letting off some nervous energy about the plan that Kaito had come up with.

"Eh, if they want Kaitou Kid badly enough they'll be willing to cooperate. And I have a feeling that they do and they will be, for whatever reason that they've got." Kaito frowned before studying the strange wooden box that he'd found in the pit the other day, turning it over in his hands and reading the inscription for what felt like the thousandth time. "So you're absolutely sure that you've never heard of this Dona Par Society before? It looks like Dad must have done something for them since he got this box. I wonder what was in it."

"Have you asked your mother about it yet? Perhaps she'd have an idea what it was. She might have even attended whatever event that he got this at with him, who knows?"

"I haven't called her today. I'll ask her when I call her later tonight." _And that's the other thing…what _is_ it about this society's name that's bugging the heck out of me? Dona Par…Dona Par…it doesn't seem to be a person's name- or at least not someone who's findable on the Internet , and something just feels off about it. I never found a Web site advertising the society and neither did Jii-chan, but maybe the Dona Par Society simply doesn't exist anymore...?_

"Are you really going to go through with this? They may want something that only your father could give or provide, you realize. What would you do then?"

"Not if that something they want is stealing." Kaito shrugged and placed the box down. "Besides, I'm hoping that while I'm with those guys that I can get a few questions of my own answered. I have a sneaking suspicion that the guys that put Mom in the hospital and the guys that are kidnapping the magicians aren't the same group of people."

"Perhaps you're right. After all, you would suppose that since they knew Toichi's name they'd just grab you at your school or something along those lines."

"Exactly. Well, I gotta head back to Hakuba's before it gets too late. The school library doesn't stay open for longer than three hours after school lets out and I used studying there as an excuse to be gone." Of course, Kaito _also_ knew that the superior, icy 'Do you think I'm stupid?' glare that had been Saguru's only proffered reply to that excuse meant that the meitantei hadn't really bought it at all.

Ten minutes later, Kaito approached the house to use the back entrance only to find the door opened before his hand could touch the knob, quickly followed by him being rather forcefully hustled inside by Minawa Shiori, the woman who seemed to be Hakuba's housekeeper-slash-investigative assistant. She double-bolted the door behind Kaito while wearing a vaguely frightened expression before turning to him and firmly pointing towards the hallway library. "Head to the library, there's no windows. Saguru-botchama will explain what's going on."

"Hakuba, what's happening?"

"Maybe something, maybe nothing. But it's always better to not take any chances, correct?" Saguru didn't even lift his eyes from The Adventure of the Speckled Band as he spoke while Watson ruffled her feathers and gave Kaito a look from the top of the leather couch Saguru was currently occupying that the magician could only interpret as annoyed.

"Well you seem awfully calm about whatever's happening."

"That would because the gentlemen in the car- or rather, cars- across the street haven't made any moves yet and they seem to merely be observing the house. Certain security precautions have already been engaged, however." Saguru adjusted the brim of the dark grey hat that he was wearing and continued to read Holmes as he talked.

"Guys across the street? Huh?"

"For about the past four hours or so there's been a pair of men sitting across the street, parked up in the service driveway at the house across the street. The house's owners are out of town on an extended vacation currently, which is why the car being there caught Shiori's eye in the first place when she came back from grocery shopping. The two keep changing vehicles and acting like they're making deliveries, but it's always the same pair of men regardless of vehicle. One rather tall, very stocky fellow and a smaller trim one with long blonde hair."

_No way. Could it possibly be the same guys that hospitalized Mom? It sure as hell sounds like them…but how in the world did they trace me here?_ After a surprisingly brief internal debate, Kaito decided to mention his mother's attack; if Saguru asked him why she'd been attacked he'd just have to quickly think up something plausible. "That, uh, sounds a lot like the two burglars who visited Mom last week and wound up hospitalizing her." _A burglary works, I guess._

"I see. Well, I'm waiting to find out a certain piece of information and then-" Saguru's cell phone rang at just that moment. "If you'll excuse me for a minute or two to take this call? I've been waiting for it for a while. Oh, and I wouldn't recommend sitting down on the couch that Watson's perched on; she seems to be in a bit of a mood this evening." With that, Saguru rose up from the couch and answered the phone as he stepped out into the hallway.

"Would you quit looking at me like that? I never did anything to you, dang it." _Well, you might have gotten a beakful of knockout gas at a robbery or something like that one of the times that Saguru brought you along to a Kid robbery, but any of that's _your_ fault for tolerating the guy enough to be his pet! _

Watson ruffled her feathers again before emitting a loud screech in Kaito's direction and hopping up and down slightly on the couch's back twice, leveling an irate-looking glare at the magician the entire time as if she'd heard his thoughts and was disagreeing with them. This was followed by a larger hop and a glide by the hawk, ending with Watson expertly landing on top of the lamp that Kaito had planted his bug in and reminding him in the process that he still needed to listen to that conversation that was recorded back at Jii's house when he had the chance to.

"Hey, what's this?" Kaito had noticed a set of thick file folders simply marked 'KID' on their spines in Saguru's overly neat, fussy handwriting on the shelves. Overcome with curiousity, he decided to have a quick peek before the meitantei returned and grabbed one of them off the shelf. His heart plummeted sharply when his broadly smiling father in full stage regalia at one of the deceased magician's many stage shows greeted him when Kaito opened one of the binders to its first page. _Okay, how in _the_ hell- _Now driven by a fear-laced desire to know what Hakuba Saguru knew Kaito flipped through the pages as fast as he could, his eyes first skimming newspaper clippings of Kid's various exploits that seemed to begin roughly fifteen years ago, then articles about Kuroba Toichi's tragic stage accident and finally later-dated articles discussing the mystery of Kaitou Kid's sudden, inexplicable lack of activity. The very last article in the first binder was headlined 'KAITOU KID-DEAD?' He put the binder back into place while unsuccessfully trying to suppress a shiver and was just mulling over whether to risk looking at one of the other binders when he heard footsteps heading towards the door and the knob turning. _It looks like_ _he's way, _way_ closer to the truth about Kaitou Kid than I ever even realized...I'll just have to sneak in here tonight and take a closer look at these when I remove that bug I planted, I guess._

Saguru launched into an explanation without any preamble once he fully entered the room. "The police went to go pull up across the street to question the men, but the car left a good ten minutes before they even arrived. That's not to say that the two won't be back later and that we don't need to be careful and watch ourselves, however. Shiori is also going to take us to school by a different route in the morning." He then cleared his throat before asking "Have you checked your house or called your mother lately? I know you mentioned that trip that she went on, in light of things it might be wise to check on both of them..."


	14. Chapter 14

"Why did that guy have to go off, send his reply to almost every major newspaper and let nearly the entire population of Japan in on what's going to happen tonight? This damned zoo is even worse than it usually is." Ginzo followed this disgusted comment to Saguru by waving his hand in a discontent, vague gesture towards the unusually large Kaitou Kid fan club turnout as well as the tons of media that had shown up to report on Kaitou Kid giving himself up to the magician kidnappers after his heist.

"Well Nakamori-keibu, it _is_ quite a story, not to mention the fact that Kaitou Kid usually draws quite a crowd to his heists to begin with." _I only hope that Kuroba knows exactly what he's doing; those two black-jacketed men who've been skulking around my block for the past few days certainly _look_ like they mean business even if they haven't done anything untoward yet. _"Plus, how else was he supposed to deliver his message to them? It's not like the kidnappers provided any sort of contact information to Kid in that note."

"Yeah, yeah. I know he had no choice. Still pisses me off." Ginzo let out a put-upon snort before he turned away and facing the shop that the thief was targeting with an irate expression. "As you've no doubt found out already, two of the other three kidnapped magicians got dropped off at that hospital in Maebashi City over in Gunma three days ago, not that either of them is talking about what happened. They're afraid the same thing might happen to others or that the guys won't release the third magician tonight like they're supposed to when Kid gives himself up, according to the police working the kidnappings."

"But Kaitou Kid made them say they would stop the kidnappings, right? That's what he made the bad guys promise if he turned himself over tonight; Ran-neechan told me that his letter in the newspaper to them said so."

The familiar child's voice struggling to be heard over the crowd's volume caused Saguru to turn around. "Oh, hello there Conan," he began after quickly recalling Kudo Shinichi's alias. "That's very true, he did. But aren't you up awfully late for a school night?" _Ahh, so Kudo-kun must have gotten Mouri Ran-san's Kaitou Kid fangirl friend that he mentioned to bring them here tonight after all. _Saguru also noticed that the other teen looked almost relieved for some reason when he used his pseudonym to address him.

"Ran-neechan's friend made us come and I wasn't allowed to stay home since Kogoro-ojisan is on a business trip somewhere," Shinichi replied over the din with a carefully faked yawn as he pointed with his free hand to a blonde girl who was saying something about a "brave, noble sacrifice" loudly enough to be overheard in the roar of the crowd from over ten feet away. At the same time, he gave a surreptitious glance over to a small corner that was relatively free of crowds.

"I'll be right back, Nakamori-keibu." Saguru had correctly guessed that Shinichi wanted him to follow him to the corner that had been indicated, and they arrived there after a few moments. "So have you seen that black Porsche anywhere?" the blonde asked in a quiet tone once they'd arrived at the location while leaning down slightly to make sure that his fellow meitantei could hear him.

"No, but I _have_ seen a bunch of weird characters hanging around here tonight, both men and women that are trying to blend in with the crowd behind the fence and the news reporters; there are at least six or seven of them and probably even more that I haven't spotted yet. I can't really put my finger on what exactly's bugging me about them either, which almost makes me even worry more. They don't feel like Black Organization members but there's just _something_ off-"

"Conan, there you are! Come on, don't you want to sit in the front row seats that Sonoko-chan saved for us up here? If we don't keep our spots we'll lose them for sure; this place is completely packed."

"Coming in a second, Ran-neechan. I'm saying hi to someone I know." Shinichi let out a light, annoyed huff and turned back to Saguru before quickly saying "They all have a little symbol hidden on their clothes somewhere- the different suits that are in a card deck. See if you can spot or tail any of them, because I won't be able to leave Ran again to poke around any more without looking suspicious."

"Alright," Saguru loudly replied to Shinichi's rapidly retreating back, although he found himself wishing that he could have gotten more of an explanation. _Hmm...the suits contained in a deck of cards? So that would mean hearts, diamonds, spades and... _His eyes widened slightly, then narrowed in thought momentarily before Saguru turned to a police table and quickly inspected the first photograph of Kaitou Kid that he could find on it. _Damn, this one is too closely zoomed in on his face. _He would be absolutely certain of his new suspicions if it wasn't such a tiny and also constantly moving detail on the thief's uniform; he needed a much closer look before he could be sure. _I can't believe that in all my time researching Kaitou Kid I hadn't ever thought of that symbol perhaps holding a deeper significance than simply a play of sorts on the family name. I'm beginning to wonder if it's meant to be a _club_ instead of a clover, but I need a much closer look at the design first..._

Saguru held the photograph in his hand out to one of the male officers from the Kaitou Kid force that was seated at the makeshift, somewhat rickety desk. "Excuse me, do you have a full-body shot of Kid anywhere close at hand? Preferably one that's primarily focused or angled on his right side if at all possible; I need to get a good look at his monocle, in particular the little triangular piece on the end of its string." _Even if Kuroba _does_ have that same symbol on his monocle, does he know what it means? For that matter does it even _have_ any sort of hidden meaning _or_ any relation to what Kudo-kun just told me? _

"Uhh, we probably do have something like that somewhere in this stuff, yep. Hang on, I'll need to dig through the photo book." The older officer had just dived down beneath the desk to begin his search when a deafening cheer erupted from the fan club crowd on the other side of the fence. Saguru instantly glanced down at his watch with an equal mix of puzzlement and curiosity. _A full four minutes and twenty point seven five seconds early? Strange, but there's no mistaking the crowd's roar for anything else other than Kuroba's arrival. _The blonde looked upwards through the searchlights and after a few seconds of following the crowd's pointed fingers spotted the familiar figure of International Criminal 1412 gliding through the clear night sky on his trademark white glider.

"So do we try and stop him like usual, or...?" began the same officer after he spotted Ginzo upon quickly reemerging from under the desk following Kaitou Kid's entrance.

"We have to," replied Ginzo quietly and gruffly as he nodded. "If we _don't_ act exactly like we always do the kidnappers will probably figure out that something's up and that Kid contacted the police for assistance."

Saguru had just been ready to voice his agreement with the keibu's remark when he noticed a white dove fly past the left side of his head- an unusually large specimen that definitely _wasn't_ one of Kaitou Kid's small, well-trained avian assistants the thief occasionally employed as a distraction and/or escape aid. This was followed by the dove dropping a piece of rolled, tied up paper at Ginzo's feet before disappearing into the night sky.

"What the hell...that was too big to be one of Kid's," muttered Ginzo before he picked up the folded paper and untied the paper. Saguru watched as his face slowly changed from concern to confusion before finally settling somewhere between amusement and anger. "This had better not be another one of his jokes or tricks, dammit..."

"Is that a note from Kaitou Kid, Nakamori-keibu? What does it say?" _I've never seen Kuroba use one of his doves as a messenger, and that didn't look like one of his doves to begin with._

"Well, it _could_ be from him but I don't know. It doesn't have one of those stupid little ink drawings of himself anywhere on it, right off the bat. And there's no signature on it at all." Ginzo handed Saguru the piece of paper before running off to try and prevent the gem's theft from the building that Kaitou Kid had just entered through a vent.

**_Please don't interfere._**

Saguru studied the single neatly computer-printed sentence with a cocked eyebrow. _What in the world? Why would Kuroba go to the trouble of sending this? He's already called Nakamori-keibu and made arrangements with the police to follow him after he surrenders, so this message seems like a complete waste of time. Unless..._He began studying the crowd on the other side of the gate more closely and noticed at least three or four people scattered in the front of the crowd who were studying the scene of the current Kid heist with unusual intensity. One of them, Saguru noticed upon closer inspection of a trim silver-haired man whose repetitive hand motions near his chest had caught the meitantei's eye, was making a white rose repeatedly disappear and reappear in his left hand in what almost seemed to be a subconscious gesture.

* * *

_Bah, Nakamori-keibu went and took almost all of the fun out of this heist for me. _Kaito had actually been more than a little disappointed when he'd entered the jewelry store above all of the police activity only to find absolutely no traps or police protection surrounding the gem or even the room it was displayed in- more than likely the older man trying to make things go as smoothly as he could without actually veering into the territory of aiding and abetting an internationally wanted criminal. Kaito also had little doubt that the police would give chase once he left the building again with the gem in hand, mostly as a way of following him to the meeting point several blocks away that he'd been provided in the form of a note pinned to the costume of one of the two magicians that had been dropped off in Maebashi City. _Hopefully I can get the guys to talk once the exchange is complete, at least somewhat. I especially want to try and find out more about that Dona Par Society Dad seemed to be a member of that I can't find any information at all on..._

After he finished putting mirrors in place to deflect the security system's lasers, Kaito was just getting ready to size up the thickness of glass cutter he would need when he heard a crash echo out from the room to his right- the manager's office that was supposed to be not only locked, but empty as well. He pressed his earpiece down to check with Jii on whether the crash might possibly have been an officer. "There are no cops in here but a really loud crash just came from the next room. Has any radio chatter indicated the police have anyone inside of the building?"

"Not that I've picked up, young master. Due to what's supposed to happen after tonight's heist, they seem to be content with merely following you afterwards and you eventually leading them to the rendezvous location so they can follow you from there."

"I figured as much. Makes it a little boring, though." Kaito studied the pedestal that the gem was sitting on more closely. "Bah, this is one of those stupid weighted cases that'll set an alarm off if the gem is removed; I'll have to find something to replace it with."

"You should have a mock gemstone in your pack that's two-hundredths of an ounce heavier than the gem. The case can only detect differences in weight greater than five-hundredths of an ounce according to the manufacturer's specifications so it should work. You'll have one second to make the switch before the alarm is triggered."

"I knew there was a reason I let you help me out," replied Kaito with a grin before cutting around the base of the case and removing it, then rapidly swapping the gem and fake that he had indeed found in his small white pack. "OK, I'm done and I'm coming back out. Break in on the police frequency and let them know that I'm heading to that park where the guys want to meet up to make the exchange."

"Alright. I'll try to follow along if I can sneak out while the police are forcing traffic aside to follow you, young master. I'll hail them in three minutes so that you have time to finish packing your things up."

Kaito replaced the cover over the fake gem, collected his mirrors and began to use the rope that he'd climbed down to make his exit with.

* * *

"Kaitou Kid is going to be exiting the building shortly and heading to the meeting spot."

Ginzo stared at the two-way police radio in his hand, wondering who on Earth the older gentleman talking was. After no one else asked, he pushed the speaking button. "Who in the hell is this? How did you get on this frequency-"

"That really doesn't matter, does it? You and your task force should be more worried about clearing some of that nasty, snarled traffic out of the way so that you can follow Kid after he lands."

"THERE HE IS!" This screech followed by a loud, continuous bout of clapping and cheering from the other side of the fence caused Ginzo to grab his binoculars and scan the roof of the jewlery store. Sure enough, there was Kaitou Kid with his signature glider, getting ready to glide from the rooftop and make his getaway.

Ginzo immediately began barking orders into the radio. "You heard him! Get people out of the way NOW, dammit! We can't afford to lose sight of Kid!"

Ten minutes of frantic scrambling after the thief later, a small group of police cars that had managed to extricate themselves from the area surrounding the building were parked in a rough half-circle fifty feet away from a large black van that Kaitou Kid was standing facing the back of while wearing his usual unreadable expression. Several media vans were trying desperately to record the current proceedings using long-range lenses since the police wouldn't let them any closer than sixty feet to the van and they were also under very strict police orders to not follow the van once it left the meeting spot.

One of the van's large back doors swung open before the bound and gagged Oonishi Isamu was rather roughly deposited onto the ground in front of Kid by the people in the back of the van, who were making a point of staying well concealed. Ginzo noticed Kid nod slightly in what was likely a response to someone talking before he walked a few paces around the other magician and then stepped up into the back of the van, being helped inside by two pairs of hands before the door quickly slammed shut and the van's engine started up. As he had watched white disappear into darkness, all Ginzo had found himself wondering was if he was going to find out Kaitou Kid's true identity through someone discovering his dead body- the one way Ginzo never wanted to obtain that knowledge.


	15. Chapter 15

"Have you opened the box?"

Kaito blinked twice under Kaitou Kid's mask, thrown off balance slightly by the question that had been brusquely asked in a no-nonsense tone almost immediately after they'd started driving away from the scene of the exchange_. Box? What box is he talking about? Could he mean that Dona Par Society one I found in Dad's pit_? Not quite sure how to answer, Kaito was mulling over whether to assume that was the box being referenced when he suddenly felt a pair of hands on his shoulders that pushed him rather firmly down onto a stool which seemed to be actually welded into the van's floor. Kaito also noted with more than some surprise that beyond being rather roughly sat down, there seemed to be no other effort forthcoming to try and physically restrain him. _Then again, handcuffs _are_ pretty easy to pick and get off when you know what you're doing..._

"Answer the question. I won't ask it again." The deep, masculine voice that had initially addressed him suddenly took on a dangerous timbre. "Have you opened the box?"

Kaito reminded himself quickly to use his alter ego's voice-they were talking with Kaitou Kid, after all, not Kuroba Kaito. He replied with a devil-may-care shrug and signature Kid grin. "I've opened _plenty_ of boxes over the course of my career, my good man. I have no idea what particular box it is that you're referring to, I'm afraid. Tell me, would it be larger or smaller than a breadbox?" Kaito finished in an almost mocking tone, the cool outer persona of Kid never revealing the more than slightly nervous teenager who was under the white suit much to Kaito's relief. _Poker Face saves the day yet again..._

"Hah. I've been saying it all along since he reappeared over a year ago, haven't I?" This was a different voice, sweetly feminine but with a venomous edge that was coming from over Kaito's left shoulder. "I knew that _this_ Kid wasn't going to be _our_ Kid, or rather the Kid we knew," the woman's voice continued in a suddenly airy tone with a half-laugh. Neither of the speakers were stepping out of the shadows of the darkened van, not that Kaito minded that- then keeping themselves in the shadows meant that they maybe didn't intend to try and kill him. "Though I certainly give him a lot of credit for managing to match the late Kuroba-san's panache." Kaito could feel a pair of eyes behind him studying the middle of his back intently.

_Wasn't _our_ Kid? What does she mean by that? Did Dad actually steal for this group or something like that? And these people obviously knew about Dad being Kid, too. _Judging by Snake and now this group, at a minimum, knowing about his father's double life as Kaitou Kid, Kuroba Toichi seemed to have done a pretty lousy job keeping his secret in his son's opinion.

"Who are you, really? Since it's very clear now that you're not Kuroba Toichi." It was the man asking, and Kaito was furiously coming up with different ways to get out of answering when a voice he hadn't heard in a while spoke up- a scratchy male voice that sent quickly suppressed chills down Kaito's spine the instant that its owner was connected to it in his mind. _It's been a while since I've seen him, but there's absolutely no mistaking that voice..._

"I'd be willing to bet that it's someone who knew Kuroba Toichi quite well." The man that Kaito knew by the code name of Snake emerged from the shadows to Kaito's right, an oily smirk pasted in place across his features. "Now that we've finally got you where we want you, it's time for you to answer a few questions. Who you are under that hat is a good start, although I've already got my very well-informed guesses." The older man stepped forward and reached for Kaito's hat to remove it before a muffled gunshot rang out, followed by the van swerving wildly to the left as the driver tried desperately to regain control. Everyone in the back tumbled around, Kaito grabbing onto the stool to keep upright whole the van slowly skidded to a halt on the side of the road, severely tilted to its left front side. "What the hell just happened?" snapped Snake after the van had fully stopped and everyone was standing upright again.

"Th-the tire gave out...actually, I think that someone _shot_ at our tire. Didn't you hear that gunshot a few seconds ago, Snake?" replied the young male driver in a shaky tone before slowly opening the driver's door and walking around the front to the other side of the car in order to try and inspect the damage more closely.

_Just what's going on here? I know Jii wouldn't have done that because he knows I wanted to try and get information from these guys about dad and what he was doing. So who or what-_

"This had damn well better not have been anything that was set up by you, Kid" snarled Snake before he pulled a small firearm out from his pocket, flipped the safety off and pressed it roughly against Kaito's stomach. "Raise your hands, turn around and get out of the van _now_. Any funny business, _any_ sudden moves at all and you'll get a bullet right in the back." He let out a husky chuckle. "Wouldn't be nearly so acrobatic if you were paralyzed from the waist down, now would you?"

"I can assure you right now that this was nothing I arranged," replied Kaito smoothly as he slowly raised his arms and turned around before stepping forward and immediately feeling the gun's short barrel pressed very hard into the small of his back, the pressure centered right on his spine and clearly felt even through his rather thick cape that doubled as a glider, his white jacket and his purple undershirt. "Do you really think that I desired to prolong this visit with you unsavory lot any longer than necessary?" He took Snake's ensuing silence as they finished exiting the van as a form of assent.

It was then that Kaito heard a gunshot to his left before seeing the two black-jacketed men that had hurt his mom emerging from the dense woods to their left at a dead run, blindingly bright flashlights pointed at them and machine guns leveled at the group.

* * *

"So you think that Kaitou Kid is stealing for a secret society or something like that?" Shinichi's brows rose before his mouth settled into a serious-looking, contemplative frown. "But that wouldn't make any sense, would it? He always returned everything he stole, just like Kuroba does now right?" He checked his room's lock again before crawling into his bed and covering himself with the comforter to continue the conversation quietly; Ran would have his head- or rather, Conan's- if he was caught up this late on a school night chatting with someone on his phone even though she'd taken him to the Kaitou Kid heist with her and let him stay up in the first place. He was only sorry that he hadn't been able to stick the transmitter he'd brought with him on the thief after he'd discovered a partially open window that had led to the director's office and managing to sneak away from Ran and Sonoko long enough to squeeze into the room.

"Well, I believe that the _first_ Kaitou Kid was at any rate. In fact, the original Kaitou Kid- Kuroba Toichi- _his_ motivation for his thefts is something that we'll need to figure out before we can really get anywhere in this investigation, I have a feeling. It certainly can't have merely been to finance a business venture, or they probably would have simply kept what Kaitou Kid stole and sold it on the black market." He paused while Watson emitted a somewhat muffled screech. "Sorry, I just placed her cover on her cage and she doesn't always feel like going to bed when she should. Now as I was saying-" Shinichi heard a faint knocking on the other end of the line and then the receiver being muffled. "What is it, Shiori? I'm right in the middle of a consulation." This was followed by a few very faint, inaudible sentences. "Thank you, Shiori. Keep the back door unlocked a while longer but it doesn't really surprise me that Kuroba isn't back yet." Shinichi then heard the phone being moved around before hakuba spoke much more clearly. "Kuroba hasn't returned from his visit with his mother yet, it seems." Both meitantei knew that the magician had used the visit as a front.

"Yeah. Hey, I was going to ask you- why did you have Kuroba draw up those diagrams of the different finales that the magicians were performing at the time of their vanishing? I remember him running into me at the hospital and spilling them all over the..." Shinichi's sentence drifted off unfinished as a new thought sprang unbidden to his mind.

_Well, whoever kidnapped them must have figured out how their tricks worked so that they would know the best time to kidnap them at, right? But aren't those top-secret magician secrets that they don't ever tell to anyone but their assistants if they have one?_

"Something the matter, Kudo-kun? You stopped in midsentence. And yes, I had Kuroba make the diagrams to try and figure out at what points the kidnappers probably made their moves so that I could go back to the scenes and look for evidence later."

"Oh, nothing's the matter Hakuba-kun. I was just thinking of something that a classmate of mine, Mitsuhiko, said a while ago." He repeated the quote to the other boy. "I suddenly remembered it while I was asking that question, and thinking about it more now I know what's been bugging me this whole time about these vanishings."

"Oh? And what exactly is that?"

"How perfectly timed each and every one of them is, and how little evidence has been left behind at all of them. The kidnappers had to have really known what they were doing and have them planned out absolutely perfectly to be able to pull the kidnappings off so cleanly, right?" Shinichi caught his breath and let the sentences sink in. "_That_ would imply an very intimate working knowledge of the tricks being used as well as the layout of the venues that they're being performed in, which would _then_ seem to mean..." He trickled off deliberately this time, seeing if Saguru was following his train of thought to test out whether the theory was as sound as it seemed.

"I believe I understand. You're thinking that it's a group of _other magicians _kidnapping these magicians, aren't you Kudo-kun?" There was a large chunk of silence while the blonde was apparently mulling the idea over. "It would explain several ofthe stranger aspects of this case, I'll certainly give it that." Shinichi could almost see the blonde nodding on the other end. "Now we just have to hope that Kuroba can managed to extricate himself from whatever he's doing tonight in one piece. He's quite proficient at that, luckily." Shinichi heard a door shutting. "The group clearly shows an interest in Kaitou Kid, so we just have to give Kuroba rope and hope he doesn't hang himself with it before we can get to the bottom of what exactly's going on."


	16. Chapter 16

"That," muttered Takagi darkly as he shook his head while careening up to the scene of a shots-fired report with sirens and lights on as Satou tried to brace herself in the passenger's seat, "doesn't look too good." The car's headlights revealed a black van leaning to its front left and what looked like at least one human body crumpled to its left in front of them on the right hand side of the road.

"No, it doesn't. And that _also_ looks like Kid's foot right there," remarked Satou grimly as she briefly pointed to a white tennis shoe-clad foot that was laying at an angle and sticking partially out of the back of the van, the attached leg that was visible encased in white dress slacks. She then resecured her grip as Takagi finished their approach and slowed down. "We only lost track of the van for a couple of minutes back on that winding road, too...What could have possibly happened in that short of a span of time?"

"I don't know, but we'd better start by seeing if anyone's alive still," replied Takagi as he stopped the car and leapt out, leaving the keys in the ignition after turning the high beams on to give them more light to work with. Satou was right on his heels as he approached the prone figure stretched out next to the van. "He's alive!" he cried in surprise a few seconds later as the young man opened his eyes and looked at both of them as they approached, slowly moving his hand to cover the bleeding bullet hole in his gut. "Stay still, moving around will probably only make it worse alright?" Takagi then turned to Satou. "I'm going to go get the car's first aid kit and call for an ambulance on the radio. I'll be right back."

"Kid..." the young man groaned before apparently catching sight of the foot poking out of the back of the van, his eyes widening to the size of saucers before they clouded over with pain and half-shut again. "They wanted Kid...but then there was black fog everywhere...and they...started shooting all of a sudden… while we were all running away..."

"Don't try to talk right now. Save your strength, you'll need it," Satou replied gently but firmly as she got down on one knee and began to assist Takagi, who she guessed had set some kind of land-speed record getting to their car and back with the medical supplies. "After we're done here we should probably check the van," she added to Takagi after they seemed to have gotten the bleeding under control somewhat. Both eyed the still motionless white-clad foot sticking out of the back of the van with steadily increasing anxiety.

* * *

Konsuke Jii didn't like this at all. Kaito was supposed to have at least contacted him by this point with either his earpiece two-way or his cell phone, if to do nothing else than relay his current position and let Jii know where to pick him up at. _Maybe they actually removed his earpiece? These people seem like they're awfully deliberate and careful after all..._

After the magician kidnappings had begun, the older man had put two and two together almost immediately after the second kidnapping and seeing how much the targets resembled Kaitou Kid. Of course, there were several questions that he had about whatever group was behind this, chief among them being why the group had waited almost a year after Kaito's resurrection of Kid to make their move. _I hope Kaito is alright. Of course, he has quite the talent for finding ways out of things, much like his father..._

"Is there anyone there?"

A strange, unfamiliar voice had issued from Jii's earpiece- an older man with what sounded like a faint tinge of the rough patina that was left on a voice after years of smoking. Jii blinked twice, not quite sure whether he wanted to answer or not. The fact that whoever it was had Kaito's earpiece, however, was greatly unsettling.

"Actually, allow me to rephrase that. I _know_ that you're there, Konsuke Jii" came the voice again, though in a hushed tone as if the speaker was trying to keep his name a secret. Jii nearly leapt out of his seat in astonishment before eyeing the ear wearing his headpiece warily and shifting nervously in the van's driver's seat. "Answer me, please, Konsuke-san."

Slowly pressing the earpiece down to respond after a few moments, Jii asked "Who is this?" with a mustered up confidence that he was nowhere close to actually feeling.

"There you are," the man half-chuckled before continuing in a more somber tone. "A pair of black-jacketed gentlemen decided to crash Kaitou Kid's little meeting in the van that he arranged through the newspaper. Being so public about the whole thing probably wasn't the smartest move, hmm?"

Jii's heart plummeted into his stomach, which itself lurched violently before he began to recover with his head still spinning. _Black-jacketed men? Could they be part of the same group of men that were skulking around the equipment that Toichi used for his finale the day that his pyrotechnics inexplicably went awry and killed him? _"Is he-"

"My apologies, but there's really no time for questions right now," interrupted the man firmly. "I'm afraid that your white-hatted young friend has likely bitten off quite a bit more than he can chew. I want to help him, but I need some questions answered and I need them answered in a hurry." This was followed by light, single cough. "Did Kaitou Kid ever discuss the Dona Par Society with you at all?"

Jii was still rapidly turning events over in his mind, trying to settle on how much to trust a disembodied voice that he had no way of knowing was actually telling the truth. He decided to at least answer the first question honestly since it could be couched in very vague, general terms. Well, actually more like a single word. "No." _The Dona Par Society...wasn't that name inscribed on the inside of the little box that Kaito found buried in the hideout last week?_

"That's surprising. Then again, maybe it's _not_ surprising," the man muttered before quickly asking another question. "Does this new Kid know why the original one stole?" After a few moments of silence, he continued. "Oh, come now. We both know that this Kaitou Kid isn't the original Kaitou Kid, Konsuke-san. But it's a very vital question."

"No. And to be frank the original never mentioned the reason to me either, just to save you the question."

"I was afraid of that," sighed the man. "This new Kaitou Kid has opened up a regular Pandora's box- literally _and_ figuratively." He cleared his throat. "It's my job to see that it gets closed up again before there are too many casualties."

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Everything that you need to know should be somewhere in the first Kid's house," replied the voice evenly. "Unfortunately, I have to cut our conversation short. I have a guest that I need to have a chat with."

_Alright. That had to have come from somewhere within a two-mile radius of the van- these little earpieces can't link up any farther apart than that. _Jii reached into the crammed glove compartment and grabbed a map out along with a pen. _I need to draw a circle on a map and figure out what possible places that that could have come from so that I can find Kaito..._

* * *

"Did _you_ see where the hell that smoke came from?"

Gin had finally broken the silence between Vodka and himself nearly an hour after what the blonde considered one of their most botched kidnapping and sweeping operations ever. What was supposed to have been a simple thing- go in and grab Kaitou Kid while leaving no one else there alive to talk about the kidnapping- had turned to absolute, total chaos the moment that they'd walked over to grab the thief after pinning the passengers in the van against the door. Suddenly, thick black smoke had come billowing out of nowhere from behind them. After realizing that there was no way to see through the thick layers of smoke and that the people that had been pinned against the van were frantically scrambling to get away, Gin called out to Vodka to begin a complete sweep after the pair pressed their backs against each other to avoid friendly fire. Gin knew that _He _wouldn't be pleased that Kaitou Kid had been killed, but the Organization's law of secrecy stood above all else. The information they had desired could probably be gotten from other sources.

"No, aniki. It was like it came out of nowhere all of a sudden," Vodka muttered darkly. He suddenly sat up and turned to face Gin and began his next sentence in a worried tone. "Aniki, I just realized something. We didn't do a body count back there like usual to make sure that they were all-"

"There _wasn't time_, dammit," snapped Gin as he took a long, irritated drag on his cigarette before holding it out the window and flicking off the ash. "The cops _had_ to have been following that van- there were at least two of them there not twenty seconds after that damn smoke started clearing." Of course, the bullets that they used were common and untraceable, but that really wasn't what he was worried about- it was that they couldn't be absolutely certain that the sweep had killed off all targets like they'd intended. If loose ends were left, they could be unraveled and picked apart for information or create a string leading back to the Black Organization. The bitter irony that going after one of those loose ends had probably led to the creation of several more on this disastrous evening was not lost on Gin.

"What are we going to tell the boss, Aniki? He won't like this at all..."

"We tell him exactly what happened," Gin replied curtly as he turned his eyes back to the road and put out his cigarette. "I think he'll agree that the sweep was the right thing to do based on the situation." His eyes narrowed as he thought back to when the first waves of black smog had drifted over his shoulders. "I still want to know what the hell happened back there. The people up against the van -including Kid- seemed just as confused about what was happening as we were."

"Are we going to back and stake out the Hakuba mansion some more, aniki?" asked Vodka while he adjusted his seat belt.

"No point anymore, is there?" the blonde snorted as he steered them toward the freeway. "The reason we had for going there is dead now."


	17. Chapter 17

"Well, sir, there's good news and bad news." The young officer looked at Nakamori Ginzo nervously. He'd drawn the short coffee straw to deliver the report to their currently rather grumpy, irate commander, and he wasn't feeling too happy about it- especially since he had a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that the drawing had been rigged by his fellow officers. "Which would you like to hear first, sir?"

"What exactly do you mean, _good news_? I've got a trailing that went horribly wrong, a possible multiple homicide on my hands and a very large group of reporters that are tripping all over themselves to try and get the story." He could feel the beginnings of a headache slowly creeping along his temples.

"Kid's a dummy."

Ginzo leapt up out of his chair and offered the officer a glare that froze him in place. "I hope you have a damned good reason for saying that." This was half-growled out in a dangerous tone.

"Oh! Sir, I, uh, certainly didn't mean that _literally_," replied the officer with a strained, nervous laugh after he realized what his superior was thinking. "Well, actually I did, but I meant that what we _thought_ was Kaitou Kid at the scene of the shooting turned out to be a life-sized dummy." He walked out of the office at a brisk trot and came back in awkwardly wrangling a life-sized cloth male dummy in a white suit that was identical to Kaitou Kid's. The dummy also had several bullet holes in various places that were readily apparent once it had been set in a sitting position in one of Ginzo's guest chairs after a few moments. "According to our witness who's in the hospital, there was a sudden smokescreen that started up when some gunmen waylaid the van and took them all as hostages. Kid probably replaced himself with this dummy and got away in the confusion just before the shooting happened."

"A smokescreen?"

"Yes, sir." The officer flipped a small handheld notebook open and rapidly scanned its pages until he found what he was looking for. "This is directly from the initial witness statement that Takagi-keiji took: 'Thick black smoke that suddenly came out of nowhere when the black-jacketed guys had us pinned up against the van,' quote end quote." He shrugged and returned the small notebook to his breast pocket. "They unfortunately couldn't get any more out of him before he was wheeled off to surgery, although he was rather cooperative."

Ginzo wasn't quite sure whether he was feeling angry or relieved at the moment; he decided that it was a mixture of both. "Get as much out of that witness as possible, as soon as possible. I want to know what the hell happened out there and I want to know NOW dammit!"

"Yes, sir. First Division homicide's helping us by putting in some overtime as well, although they're waiting for our injured witness to come out of anesthesia for a while before they begin questioning him again."

Ginzo narrowed his eyes suspiciously before taking a sip of coffee. "You mentioned bad news, too, didn't you? What's the bad news?"

"Ah. That." He looked down at the floor and shifted his feet nervously before meeting his captain's eyes again. "We, ahem, have about fifty of the KKFC outside right now, with more showing up every minute. They're rioting because they think that we forced Kid to turn himself over. Sir," he added quickly as Ginzo rushed out of the room, turning the air a vibrant shade of blue in his angry wake.

* * *

"Jii-chan? Are you there?"

_Thank goodness he's alright. _Jii's initial thought at the sound of Kaito's voice in his ear was quickly followed by the realization that Kaito wasn't using the voice he normally adopted as Kaitou Kid. "I'm here; I've been looking for you for a while, actually. Where are you? Are you injured?"

"I don't know where I am exactly. I woke up ten minutes ago with a blanket on me in some back alley somewhere with my hat and monocle lying beside me," groaned Kaito. "When we were all traveling in the van two guys in black jackets shot the front tire out and ran us off the road before they came at us with guns. Then there was suddenly thick black stage smoke everywhere; the last thing I remember before waking up here is getting one hell of a knock on the back of my head. Aside from a killer goose egg on the back of my head I'm fine, though."

"It was stage smoke?"

"Yeah- It was pitch black but totally odorless, and it also didn't get my suit dirty like real smoke would have." This was followed by a few seconds of silence. "If it wasn't you that bailed me out back there- and it sure doesn't sound like it from the fact that you've been looking for me- then who _was_ it?"

"I wish I knew. I, ahem, had a very brief conversation with an older-sounding gentleman over your headset a bit ago. He was very vague, however. I imagine that he's who assisted you." Jii pulled over and looked at the map that was laying open on the van's passenger seat. "Give me a description of where you're at so I can pick you up."

"I think I see you coming up the street, actually. Do you see a big tree up ahead on your left at the end of the block with a huge knot in its trunk?"

"Yes," replied Jii, who'd seen it under the streetlights as soon as Kaito finished the sentence.

"Stop there."

Jii did, and he watched Kaito emerge from a nearby alley and run around the front of the van before opening the passenger door and sliding into the seat after tossing the map into the back. "Let's hurry up and get out of here, Jii-chan. You can tell me what that guy said to you on the way back to Hakuba's."

"Not much, really," began Jii as he pulled away. "He just made a reference to you opening Pandora's box, and that he had to try and make sure that a minimum of blood was shed in reshutting it."

"Oh MAN I'm dumb!" cried Kaito as he removed his hat and slapped his forehead with his gloved palm before wincing in pain and rubbing the small knot on the back of his head. "That box of Dad's...Dona Par has to be an anagram! It's the _Pandora_ society." After Jii gave him a puzzled look, Kaito sighed and turned a bit in his seat. "That whole 'opening Pandora's box' thing got me thinking about it- that little box we found in Dad's stuff, remember? The one from the 'Dona Par' society?"

"I see. Yes, I suppose that's a possible explanation." Jii nodded his head while keeping his eyes on the road. "So do you think that your father might have been a part of this Pandora Society, then?"

"I don't know, but things seem to be pointing that way. I wonder if Dad was looking for Pandora, too, but didn't know that it was a gem..." Kaito rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head gingerly. "Ugh, they gave me a heck of a knock to the head all right."

"You know, that could very well be the case. His thefts _did_ have two common strings now that I think back on them," replied Jii as he made a right turn. "They were all larger objects- nothing smaller than a baseball, if memory serves - and every single one of them was _also_ supposed to have something else hidden within them. Just like Pandora."

"We need to figure it out in a hurry before any more people- well, magicians- get hurt. Them thinking I'm dead will probably buy some time to poke around, but Kaitou Kid's definitely gonna have to stop stealing until this mess is sorted out." Kaito sighed deeply. "I'd better call Mom real quick before she sees the news and freaks out, though. Then I need to have you take me back to Hakuba's- if I _don't_ show up it'll probably just get him more on my case than he already is, not that he isn't _already_ completely convinced that I'm Kid." Kaito then reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone to call his mom.

"Oh Kaito, I'm so glad you called," she began breathlessly after picking the phone up. "You should see what all the news stations are saying tonight. I was so worried!"

"That's why I called- to let you know I'm OK." He blinked. "What exactly are they saying?"

"Depending on the station, everything from Kaitou Kid being killed to armed bandits carting Kid off in a wagon. It's terrible! My stomach's been in knots for these past couple of hours."

"Well, I'm not going to be able to do much as Kid until I figure out who these guys after me are and why they've suddenly decided to come after me." He sighed. "I want you to stay put for a while longer, OK? At least until Jii-chan and I can figure out what these guys are up to."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Kaito. My cousins are very understanding, and I brought plenty of clothing."

Kaito then realized he had a perfect opportunity to ask his mom some questions about the Dona Par society. "Hey, Mom, do you have time to answer some quick questions?"

"About what, Kaito?"

"It's about Dad. Jii-chan and I found this box down in Dad's pit- an empty wooden box that had a message that said 'Thanks for your donation, the Dona Par Society' or something like that burned into the lid. Did Dad ever mention that group?"

"Ever _mention_ them?" Akita chuckled. "He went to their meetings every single week, and sometimes even scheduled his heists around thier meetings. He loved talking shop with them for hours. The Dona Par society was one of the biggest parts of his offstage life."

"Talking shop? Do you mean that they were-"

"Other magicians, yes. It was a whole group of them that helped each other with tricks and stage equipment. They held benefits sometimes, too, for magicians who were having a tough time finding work or needed a bit of yen in between performances to help pay the bills." Akita's voice was filled with warm recall. "They were a fun, wonderful group of people. I don't know if you remember any of them very well because you were pretty small, but they were incredibly supportive to me after your father passed on until I was able to get back on my feet mentally and financially. I eventually felt like they were helping me out of a sense of guilt, however, and so I let myself slowly drift apart from them because I didn't like that feeling."

"Did Dad ever mention any names of any of the other members? Or do you remember any of their names?"

"Oh, goodness...it's been so long and I talked with so many of them that I honestly can't remember. I _might_ have some of their stage names written down somewhere in one of my old notebooks but you probably don't want to go back there yet, do you?"

"I think I'm going to have to; don't worry, Jii-chan's with me. I'll call you tomorrow, OK? Get some rest."

"Be careful, Kaito."

"I will be," he replied before hanging up and turning to Jii. "We need to go to my house again and do some hunting."


	18. Chapter 18

Thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers! Thanks for your patience with my updates. I WILL finish ALL my stories. *eyes the very uncooperative Muzai that wants to finish twenty different ways evilly*

* * *

"Do you know what it is exactly that we're looking for, young master?" Jii carefully stepped over and around the traps that Kaito had set up all over the Kuroba home, trying to follow Kaito's footsteps exactly so as to not trigger any of them.

"Mom said she might still have an old notebook around here that may have stage names of Dona Par Society members in it, so we're looking for that along with anything Dad left behind that'll help us figure out what these kidnappers are up to." Kaito continued to slowly make his way towards the large painting of his father hanging on the back wall, ducking under and over various triggers. He finished approaching the painting after a few moments and began the process of opening the secret hideout. "There are no traps right around the picture, but stay close."

Jii nervously looked down and placed his feet on the floor as he waited for Kaito to finish. "We also have to figure out why these guys decided to come after me all of a sudden," Kaito continued as the secret door swung open and the pair entered the room. "Why'd they choose _right now_ to come after me- well, Kaitou Kid? Why didn't they start chasing after me right after I started bringing Kid back?" He grinned as he began digging around in the pit again, hoping against hope that they'd find something. "Especially because I probably would have been a lot easier to catch back then, when I didn't know what the heck I was doing."

"You'll get no argument on that one," replied Jii with a laugh as he began moving things in another part of the pit. "You also raise an excellent point- something had to have set these events into motion." He moved a particularly large box out of the way. "I've got a feeling that if we can figure out what triggered the kidnappings, we'll gain quite a bit of headway into getting the group -or rather, groups- of people chasing you off your back."

"I hope so. I want to get back to finding Pandora, but if I start pulling heists as Kid before we figure this stuff out they'll probably just start kidnapping magicians all over again, or maybe even worse." Kaito shivered as he thought back to the Osaka letter's dark threat. _We might just stop giving them back..._

"Interesting. Here's what seems to be a dinner menu from a Dona Par Society event that's ten years old, judging by the date printed on it." Jii rubbed his chin and studied the folded piece of paper. "It was folded up and tucked between two of the books here on the shelf." He opened the trifold-style menu and began studying it.

"Sounds like it was hidden by Dad, all right. What's on it? Besides the food, that is." Kaito felt his phone vibrating against his leg and pulled it out of his pocket, studying the caller ID. "Bah, it's Hakuba- he probably saw the news and thinks I'm dead or something." He pressed the answer button and placed the phone to his hear. "What do you want?"

"Are you staying somewhere else tonight, or does Shiori need to leave the side door unlocked?" Saguru cleared his throat. "Seeing as how it's a shade past one A.M. on a school night and all."

_Oh, right. _"Uh, sorry- I was picking up some stuff from my house and lost track of time I guess. Leaving the door unlocked's fine."

"Alright, I'll tell Shiori." Kaito was somewhat surprised at Saguru's lack of questioning- especially about his being out so late on a school night. "Just be sure to lock the door behind you, hmm?"

"Hakuba was just wondering if I was still staying in his guest room. I didn't realize how late it was," Kaito explained to Jii after he hung up and returned the phone to his pocket. "So what was on that menu that you found?"

"It appears to be a list of several stage names, actually. This also looks like your father's handwriting, along with some drawings of crows and doves." Jii pointed to several names that were printed in ink on the back of the dinner menu, the older man's brow furrowing as he continued to study the list. "How strange."

"What's strange?" Kaito walked over to study the list over Jii's shoulder. It was a list of somewhere between ten and twenty stage names, with what looked like a crude drawing of either a white dove or a black crow next to each name. Kaito then picked up on what he figured Jii was talking about- five of the names had nothing at all next to them. "Looks like some kind of code or something. Well, let's get going for now- I'd like to get _some _sleep before school tomorrow. I can try and figure it out during class."

* * *

"It has _what_ on it?"

_Why does Kudo sound so shocked? _"It appears to be a copy of a list of magician's stage names written on the back of a menu for a dinner that an organization called the Dona Par Society held." Saguru shifted in his sofa slightly and gave the paper in his hand another look. "The names have either doves or crows sketched by them- or at least most of them do. Kuroba 'accidentally' dropped it on the way out of school this afternoon as we were leaving class so that I could see it; he was about as subtle as a freight train." Saguru cleared his throat and glanced in the direction of his guest bedroom before continuing. "There are five names on the list that don't have either a crow or a dove by them."

"No way. It can't be." Shinichi almost seemed to be muttering to himself.

"What exactly's on your mind, Kudo?"

"I was thinking about the Black Organization, actually." There was a pause and what sounded like a backpack being zipped. "Of course, that's probably because I can't help mentally associating them with crows after some of my confrontations with them."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"I don't want to get into it too much until we have more proof but I'm wondering if the Black Organization is somehow even more tied up in this than we realize." He sighed deeply. "I really wish we had the original of that paper to take a good look at, but you probably couldn't get it from Kuroba." Saguru could hear footsteps padding across the room before a lock snapped into place on the other end. "Have Gin and Vodka shown up at all since last night, while we're on the subject of those guys?"

"Interestingly enough, there hasn't been hide or hair of them across the street since the shooting. The witness who's currently in the hospital gave a rough description of the shooters that matched Gin and Vodka's descriptions quite nicely, however- what he could manage to see before the black smoke obscured everything, that is."

"Not surprising, and of course we can't ask the only eyewitness we've got access to. Well, we _could_ ask him but he'd be admitting that he's Kaitou Kid if he answered truthfully. If he really _is_ Kid, that is."

Saguru continued to study the copy of the menu he'd been given. "I don't think Kuroba has much more of a clue as to what's going on or why this whole mess suddenly started than we do, Kudo. He came to us for help- in a strange and rather roundabout way, but he still came to us. I highly doubt that anything but sheer desperation would have driven him to such a thing." He snorted lightly. "Well, that along with that 'No One Gets Hurt' rule of his."

"Don't remind me. You're not even supposed to know that I'm me." Shinichi continued on after a few moments of somewhat tense silence. "So how old is the menu exactly? Maybe we can start looking at stuff that happened on or around the date. Wherever Kuroba found it at, it must have been kept for a reason."

"It's ten years old and dated September 15." Saguru rose out of his seat and began walking around the library. "There _is_ one event that immediately springs to my mind, actually- Kuroba Toichi's death on September 17th of the same year. He passed away after being rushed to the hospital; some pyrotechnics used during his stage show's finale exploded a few seconds before they were supposed to and he got caught directly above the explosion."

"Let me guess what happened. The police could never figure out what exactly triggered the early explosion, and his death was eventually ruled an accident." Shinichi's tone was serious and dark in spite of his child's voice. "That's got the Black Organization's M.O. written all over it, all right. The question is how the names on the menu connect with what happened."

"Actually, it might be a good idea to ask Hattori to poke around down in Osaka for clues."

"Uh, Hattori? Why?"

"The accident that claimed Kuroba Toichi's life took place during a road show down in Osaka, so I'd imagine that the case file would still be there in mothballs somewhere." Saguru settled back down into the couch. "He'd likely be more amenable to a request coming from you than me, though, so it's probably best if you call him."

* * *

"Yeah, Hakuba wasn't kidding. Kuroba Toichi got himself blown up alright- and damn near took the whole theater with him in the process, if what I'm readin' here is anything to go by, although I'm not even a third done yet." Hattori Heiji's voice filled with curiosity as he went on. "What's makin' you look at this guy's death, anyhow? It's a pretty old case- took 'em a while to find it."

"Because whatever happened to him may very well tie into the string of magician kidnappings that have been happening lately." Shinichi explained as quickly as he could about the menu and its implications. "When Hakuba mentioned that there were crows by people's names on the menu it got me wondering about a possible connection to the Black Organization, too- at the time the menu was drawn on, I mean. I really don't think it's coincidence that Kuroba Toichi got killed two days after this dinner menu got drawn on, if he was the one that did the drawing and the crows mean what I think they mean."

"Oh, yeah." Heiji sounded exited. "There were some witnesses that noticed a couple men in black jackets and hats hangin' around backstage the day of the explosion." He let that sink in for a few moments. "They seemed particularly interested in Kuroba Toichi's fireworks that he used for his big finale, although the police could never get a good description of the guys and they couldn't find any evidence of tampering. Not that there was much left to test of course, fireworks being designed to blow up and all."

"Did they ever figure out why the fireworks went off early?" Shinichi kept a close eye on his door, expecting Ran to grab him for dinner at any moment.

"Nope, at least not from what I've read so far. 'Freak accident' is used more than once, although it sure seems like the cops thought _somethin' _strange was up. They kept a team of four on it for nearly six months, but couldn't find anything solid in the end."

"I should have known. Those guys are _too_ good at covering their tracks," sighed Shinichi disgustedly. "Which makes me wonder what happened at the van last night. Leaving _anyone_ alive is a big slipup for the Organization, especially for Gin and Vodka."

"I saw that they have at least one witness still alive in the hospital. Is it Kid?"

"I'm not sure. Hakuba seems pretty certain he knows who Kaitou Kid is and the guy is still alive and kicking." Shinichi sat up and stretched his legs. "Actually, he's been staying in Hakuba's guest room for the past few days."

"Oh really? Who is it?"

"His name's Kuroba- Kuroba Kaito. And yeah, he's the son of Kuroba Toichi" Shinichi added quickly, anticipating his friend's next question. "He's also who gave Hakuba the menu that had the drawings on it- a copy of the menu, anyhow." Shinichi then heard a knocking on the door and let out a muffled curse. "I've gotta go, Ran's knocking on the door. Keep reading, I'll call when I can tomorrow." He stuff his phone into his pocket and

"Conan, what are you doing in there? You've been cooped up in your room practically since you came home from school," came Ran's worried voice through the door.

"I'm doing homework," Shinichi called through the door as he realized that, in a way, it wasn't a lie.


	19. Chapter 19

Thanks to all my readers, reviewers and watchers- let me know what you think! :)

* * *

"Hey Conan, are you having a birthday party or something?"

Ayumi's voice coming from behind him caused Shinichi to jump up slightly in his seat. He turned to her and saw that she was looking at the phone book he'd brought with him, which was half-opened on his backpack to advertisements for various magicians. _I'm trying to track down some of the people on this old menu that Kuroba gave to Hakuba yesterday, actually._ Shinichi was having no luck so far, though, and he suspected that most of the magicians listed on it had probably either retired or changed stage names. The other questions he had were the doves and crows by the stage names. If the crows meant what he thought they meant, what exactly did the doves mean? And what about the five people on the list that didn't have a dove _or_ crow by their stage name? He then realized that Ayumi was still patiently waiting for a reply from him. "Uh, no, I'm not having a party. I'm trying to find some magicians, actually." Shinichi didn't want to get any more specific than that.

"Oh! Are you trying to help solve the magician kidnappings?" Ayumi asked brightly, her face lighting up as she sat down next to Shinichi. "I wanna help, too!"

"Help with what?" Mitsuhiko wandered over after he put his backpack down in his own seat.

"We're gonna help solve the magician kidnappings, Mitsuhiko!" cried Ayumi happily as she pointed at the menu Shinichi was holding.

_Wait just a minute. What's this 'we' business? _Shinichi realized that it was already too late to try and head things off at the pass, though- Genta was heading over to his desk as well, having seen the rest of the Shonen Tanteidan gathered around. _Well, they _have_ helped me figure out more than a few cases in the past. _Plus, he'd learned from experience that once the Shonen Tanteidan decided to check something out, there really wasn't a lot that you could do to stop them. Shiho's knowing half-smile as she was organizing her desk across the aisle wasn't exactly helping things, either.

"Hey, where'd you get this menu from, Conan?" asked Genta as he picked up the photocopied menu and began studying it while turning it around at various angles. "It looks like a bunch of doves and crows and weird names, and it's real old-lookin'."

Shinichi chose to duck the question of where exactly he'd gotten it from. "It's some magician's stage names. Magicians that might know something about the kidnappings," he continued as the group studied the menu with an almost rapturous awe.

"Hey, do you need any more phone books to look through, Conan?" Mitsuhiko had finally torn his eyes away from the menu and noticed the phone book on his friend's backpack. "My mom and dad usually keep theirs for a long time before they get rid of them."

An idea suddenly formed in Shinichi's mind after the other boy finished asking the question. _Maybe there _is _something these guys can help me with that won't put them in danger after all. _"Actually, yeah." He looked at the group, meeting each one of their eyes in turn. "And you guys can help, too. Can you all ask your parents for any old phone books they might have sitting around? And be sure to let them know that the older they are, the better. Then we can meet up and start looking through all of them tomorrow after school." With any luck, they might be able to find an older phone book that would have contact information for at least one of the magicians on the list.

"Agasa-hakase will have some phone books buried somewhere as well, I'm sure," replied Shiho coolly as she finished taking her seat next to Shinichi. "Perhaps we should check the library for information as well?"

"Oh, good idea Ai-chan! But I don't know if our library here has old phone books." Ayumi's brow knitted in thought as she looked down at the ground.

"Haibara-san probably means the _big _library on the way home from school, Ayumi. The one that has all the steps and the big fountain and stuff, and the really tall shelves." Genta turned to Shiho. "Right?"

Shiho nodded and then pointed to Shinichi's backpack, which seemed to be moving. "I think that your phone is ringing."

_What's Ran doing calling me this close to the start of class? _"Hello, Ran-neesan."

"Conan, what exactly did you carry to school with you in your backpack this morning? Because it sure wasn't your binder that has your homework in it," Ran half-laughed. "Your binder is still sitting here on the table, but your backpack looked as big as it normally does."

"Oh! I forgot to tell you last night. I took all my homework out of my binder and put it in my backpack by itself because I needed a phone book today."Shinichi was fervently hoping that Ran wouldn't want to know _why_ he needed one, though he supposed he say that they'd been doing a school project about alphabetization or something if he had to.

"Well, alright. As long as you have your homework with you, that's fine. Have a good day, Conan!"

"I will, Ran-neechan." He hung up the phone just as the class bell began to rang and the kids scrambled to their seats.

* * *

"Snake was right there, _in the van_! You even had him at gunpoint! What do you _mean_ that you didn't kill him?"

Gin felt a wave of annoyance wash over him, though he carefully controlled it like he always did. He was beginning to wonder just how many times he was going to have to explain what had happened at the van last night to _Him _(amongst other Black Organization higher-ups) before they understood that things had been out of their control. Well, they'd been under control at first, but that had rapidly changed. "Like I said already, everything was going exactly like it should have." He took a long, calming drag on his cigarette before continuing. "Snake was on the van with Kuroba like we predicted he would be, so we went ahead with the plan. We shot out the tire and forced everyone out of the van, or at least we were starting to force everyone out and up against the side of the van so that we had a clear shot at Snake, when all of a sudden this damn thick, black smog came out of nowhere."

"Surely it didn't come out of _nowhere_. Try to remember the direction that it floated in from; could someone in the van have set it off?" _His _voice was a strange mixture of culture and gruffness, and Gin often found himself wondering what exactly the man who possessed it looked like. Their leader was always very careful to not be seen, however, and usually held his gatherings in a room with lighting designed to leave him completely in the shadows; this meeting was no exception.

Gin shut his eyes momentarily, sending his mind back to when the smoke had first started interfering with his vision. "It came from behind us," he said flatly after reopening his eyes. "After it got too thick to see and it was clear that things weren't going right, I gave the order to sweep." This, of course, was the main reason why he'd been called in before the boss today- the incredibly disastrous 'sweep' he'd ordered last night and performed along with Vodka. It was a tactic that the Organization severely frowned on in the first place (they much preferred to subtly eliminate their targets and not leave a mess behind,) and that combined with the fact that the sweep had gone so badly wrong meant that he was currently up to his fedora in scalding hot water. Gin also realized idly as he smashed his butt out in a nearby ashtray that he had just polished off his third cigarette, and they weren't even ten minutes into the meeting. That, generally, was a Bad Sign.

"Yes. The sweep you ordered last night." Gin could see faint outlines where his bosswas subtly moving around. "We need to talk about that sweep, you and I." Gin could hear papers rustling, though how their leader could actually _see_ anything in the pitch darkness was anyone's guess. "We know for a fact that there's at least one witness still alive and under _very_ heavy police protection at the hospital. Why wasn't he finished off? And for that matter, why wasn't a body count done? We probably have more than our hospitalized survivor still running around out there."

"I'm tellin' ya, the cops were _right there. _They must have been tailing the van like we were, but on a different road." Gin shook his head and took a sip of almost scaldingly hot black coffee. "Vodka and I barely had time to empty our clips before we heard the sirens." He leaned forward, thinking back to last night again. "That, and the damn black smog was the other problem. We couldn't even see half a foot in front of our faces."

"Which is a big part of why we're wondering what in the world you were thinking even ordering the sweep in the first place." This was followed by a light, derisive snort. "Sweeps aren't of any use if you can't see who you're trying to kill." The shadows shifted again. "You left a vast wealth of firearms evidence behind as well; we had to get rid of two perfectly good and rather expensive semiautomatic machine guns this morning thanks to your lack of thought."

"We really didn't have a choice." Gin could feel himself rapidly losing his temper, but he kept his tone even and respectful. "How were we supposed to know that Kaitou Kid arranged for himself to be followed by the police?"

"Because he's Kaitou Kid." After a few moments of silence, the Black Organization's leader let out a disgusted-sounding harrumph. "He does have that 'No One Gets Hurt' policy of his, and those idiots are out there kidnapping and hurting magicians right and left thinking they could possibly be him. I'm sure that it doesn't sit well at all with Kuroba."

"Well, he's dead now, so that really doesn't matter." Gin took another sip of coffee. "I'd be expecting to see Kuroba Kaito's funeral notice any day now."

"You shouldn't be expecting that. In fact, I'm certain that he's still very much alive."

Gin blinked, wishing that he could make actual eye contact with the other man and not just stare into shadows. "Why are you so sure of that? I saw his foot laying there in the back of the van as we were peeling out, and there was nothing in the news about Kaitou Kid being taken to the hospital."

"Magicians specialize in illusions." The soft rolling of a wheeled office chair filled the room, followed by a drawer opening. "And before you ask, no, I'm not referring to Kuroba Kaito."

"What are you talking about?" If it had been anyone else but his boss, Gin would have had them up against the door and been beating the information out of them already.

"Let's just say that Kaitou Kid is being helped by someone- or rather, a group of people- that he probably doesn't even realize are his allies yet." This was followed by what sounded like the scratching of a pen on paper. "And I think it will be in our best interests to not interfere with that aid, at least until Snake and the rest of the traitors are finally drawn out of hiding."


End file.
